Identifying the driving factors of rural residents’ household waste classification behavior: Evidence from Sichuan, China

The extensive participation of rural residents in household waste classification is indispensable for sustainable development. In comparison with urban residents, rural residents have a scattered living arrangement and possess little knowledge about environmental protection, which hinders the advancement of household waste classification. This study used the extended theory of planned behavior and structural equation modeling approach to identify the driving factors of rural residents’ household waste classification in China. An empirical study including 586 rural residents in 9 villages in Sichuan Province was conducted. Results show that the intention and behavior of rural residents’ household waste classification are significantly affected by factors such as publicity and education, attitudes, subjective norms, past behavior, and sense of belonging. The results are in line with the findings of existing literature. Notably, publicity and education are critical influencing factors. They not only directly affect the domestic waste classification intention and behavior of rural residents but also exert indirect influence via attitudes, subjective norms, and past behaviors. Moreover, the sense of belonging of villagers has a positive intermediary effect on transforming attitude to intention, past behavior to intention, and publicity and education to behavior. Residents with a lower sense of belonging are more easily affected by the classification behavior of people around them, whereas those with a higher sense of belonging directly transform received publicity and education to behavior. Therefore, strengthening publicity and education on waste classification and enhancing residents’ sense of belonging are paths forward to promote household waste classification in China's rural areas. The results of this study are also referable for rural household waste management in other countries.