Roles of neighborhood ties, community attachment and local identity in residents’ household waste recycling intention

Abstract

Abstract Rapid urbanization combined with an increasing population has resulted in the continuous increase of household waste. Putting behavioral intention into a community-level social context, this paper investigates the roles of place-related sociopsychological variables in explaining urban residents' waste recycling intention. With data from the city of Hangzhou, China, the study finds that residents' neighborhood ties and community attachment have positive direct impacts on residents’ waste recycling intentions; neighborhood ties also have positive indirect impacts on waste recycling intentions with community attachment as a mediator. Local identity has moderating roles in the effects of neighborhood ties and community attachment on waste recycling intentions. This study extends the literature of the contextual significance of pro-environmental behavior to place-related social psychological variables and enhances the understanding of how these variables relate to pro-environmental behavior such as waste recycling.