Perceptions and decision-making of dental professionals to adopting sustainable waste management behaviour: a Theory of Planned Behaviour analysis

Background High carbon emissions associated with clinical waste disposal in dentistry pose an environmental and public health concern. Current NHS guidelines do not mandate sustainable waste management resulting in recyclable dental waste being incinerated. In the absence of such policies, decision to implement sustainable waste management practices falls upon dental professionals who rely on their own knowledge and beliefs about the environmental impact of dentistry. Literature exploring barriers to sustainable waste management by dental professionals require further insight on dental professionals' decision-making processes. Therefore, this study uses a behavioural decision-making model - the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) - to explore sustainable waste segregation behaviour of dental professionals based on their attitudes and beliefs about sustainable dentistry and climate change.

Methods Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with dental professionals between October and November 2022 in dental practices in Fife, Scotland. Interviews were analysed using Braun and Clarke's reflexive thematic data analysis.

Findings Following thematic analysis, eight themes were identified around the participants' attitudes, perceived subjective norms and perceived behavioural control, pointing at the way knowledge gaps and lack of awareness were often linked with attitudes which are associated with low intention to execute sustainable waste management.

Conclusions TPB offers a useful framework to understand waste segregation behaviour of dental professionals. Further studies are required to further establish sustainable waste management behaviour.