Social capital and residents’ plastic recycling behaviors in China

Abstract

Plastic waste has become a significant challenge for waste managers currently. Recycling is an important measure to reduce the associated environmental impacts. However, the recycling rate for plastic waste is low. As a notably contextual and collectivist society, China is a major consumer and waste treater of plastics. In this context, social capital may be a vital factor of Chinese plastic recycling behavior (PRB) but without enough attention. This study explores the role and mechanism of social capital on Chinese residents’ PRB based on an extended Theory of Planned Behavior model. Primary data collected from 803 residents in China was used to test the model empirically. The results show that social capital (trust, social norms and social networks) significantly influence PRB. Furthermore, personal norms and attitude are mediators between social capital and PRB. Additionally, perceived behavioral control weaken the effect of social norms on PRB.

Keywords:

• plastic recycling behavior
• social capital
• Theory of Planned Behavior
• mechanism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

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Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences [Grant no. 18YJAZH055].