Abstract
To preserve the environment and prevent the landfills from getting full, South African households are urged to separate their domestic waste before disposal. Drawing from the transtheoretical model behaviour of change, the purpose of this study is to identify and understand the stages of change that best describe the level of engagement in domestic waste in South Africa. A survey questionnaire was administered to collect data from 350 households residing in the city of Johannesburg that is currently implementing a mandatory recycling program and 349 households from the city of Tshwane that is not. The findings of this study reveal that most households are in the pre-contemplation phase of change, and that there are no significant differences in proportion of households in each stage of change between the two cities. This study is of importance to social marketers and municipality managers in the sense that it recommends actionable strategies to facilitate progress from one stage of change to another.