Abstract

Organization, individuals, and families in Saudi Arabia need more attention on recycling in their daily waste. The average generated daily rate of municipal solid waste is 1.72 kg per capita and the yearly kingdom waste recycling is around 15 million tons. Saudi government set a goal to reach 30million tons per year by 2033. This study examines the awareness level of paper recycling for university students in Saudi Arabia. A survey model consists of 26 measures that concentrated in attitudes, actions, and beliefs, is used. Seventy students in college of engineering at University of Jeddah responded to the survey. Moreover, barriers of adopting recycling paper in Saudi Arabia is analyzed and prioritized using Interpretive Structure Modeling (ISM) software. The findings indicates that the current state level of paper recycling awareness in Saudi Arabia is considered low, the education system does not support this issue, and there is a strong agreement that recycling for individuals and families in Saudi is not easy due to the absence of facilities such as containers and poor infrastructure. Furthermore, it indicates that the barrier “lack of laws that support recycling paper” is considered as the most critical barrier and it influences the rest of barriers.