Analyzing the answers to questions about the places of repair, separate collection, purchase and sale of second-hand items on the map of St.Petersburg, we applied a network analysis. The network’ vertices were respondents and four circular practices: repair, separate waste collection, sale and purchase of second-hand items. Each respondent and his answers were identified by an individual number, in a survey and we were able to apply the community search algorithm to the network. The edges of the graph indicated that the respondents were engaged in the practice and put on the online-map the places that correspond to it.
We found that three communities can be distinguished:
Repair and separate waste collection
Buy or get a second-hand item
Sell or give away a second-hand item
The arrows indicate that the respondent marked on the map the places of practice, and the thickness of the arrow indicates the number of places he marked.
According to the study "Behavioral prediction of environmentally oriented anticonsumption and consumption: A multilevel study of five Eurobarometer surveys" (Ortega et al., 2020), separate waste collection is the most common practice among eco-oriented citizens and this is consistent with our data.
We looked into distribution of second-hand practices in the city among eco-oriented citizens. The calculation showed that the second-hand purchasing sites (4 km) are four times farther than the repair’ sites (1 km), and the distances to the repair’ and separate waste collection’ (0,7 km) sites are minimal, if the distance is measured in a straight line. However the distance to the site of selling second-hand is 1,5 km.
The availability of separate collection points encourages the development of this practice in St. Petersburg.
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