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Application of extended theory of planned behavior to explore household pharmaceutical waste recycling intentions: a case study of China

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Abstract

Household pharmaceutical waste (HPW) contains several antibiotics and hormones, contaminating the environment, wildlife and human beings. Existing literature tends to overlook the determinants of HPW recycling intention, which has practical significance for taking environmental responsibility to minimize HPW and adverse environmental effects. The study adopted Extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explore the impact of the key factors on HPW recycling for proposing a more targeted take-back system to solve the problem of difficult recycling. We gathered 459 valid household responses through an online questionnaire survey and employed the PLS–SEM technique to verify the validity and reliability. The results show that subjective norm and recycling attitude directly influences HPW recycling intention, except perceived behavioral control. As for the newly added variables, economic incentive, information publicity, and trust in manufacturers noticeably influence HPW recycling intention, in contrast, the trust in government and retailers is not significant in predicting HPW recycling intention. Furthermore, it is worth noting that information publicity can exert an indirect effect on recycling intention through subjective norms and recycling attitudes. This research provides guidance on increasing the involvement of households in recycling activity for designing and modifying the HPW reverse logistics.

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Data availability

The data sets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due [the study is funded by NNSFC and HSSFMEC. The data will be used in other research projects] but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant #: 71801003), Humanities and Social Sciences Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (Grant #: 20YJC630230).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Anhui Polytechnic University, No. 8 Beijing Zhong Road, Jiu Jiang District, Wuhu City, 241000, Anhui, China

    Bin-Xiu Xu & Zhi Liu

  2. College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, No. 169 Sheng Tai West Road, Jiang Ning District, Nanjing City, 210016, Jiangsu, China

    Adeela Rustam

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  1. Bin-Xiu Xu
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  2. Zhi Liu
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  3. Adeela Rustam
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Contributions

Author contributions to the present paper are as follows: B-XX and ZL contributed equally to this work, i.e., carried out the data collection, processed the collected data, results were interpreted and finally AR contributed in review, modifications of text and English proofreading of the present manuscript.

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Correspondence to Adeela Rustam.

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Appendix A

Appendix A

Fig. 1
figure 1

Extended framework of Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) explains hypothetically the effect of behavioral attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intentions and behavior

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Extended TPB model framework of HPW constructed to predict the HPW recycling intention with addition of new variables, i.e., economic incentive, institutional trust and information publicity. The institutional trust is further decomposed into trust in government, retailers and manufacturers

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Fig. 3
figure 3

Pictorial overview of the research phases and procedures

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Fig. 4
figure 4

Empirical results of the modified model and goodness of fit values. The significant values show the robust relationship between subject norm, recycling attitude, trust in manufacturers, economic incentive, and information publicity noticeably influenced HPW recycling intention

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Table 1 Descriptive statistics of the basic information (N = 459)
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The basic situation of the sample from eight aspects, i.e., Gender, Age, Education, Number of Households, monthly income, average storage time, Types of household medicine, processing method and recycling method.

Table 2 Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
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Table 3 Reliability and validity analyses of variables
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Table 4 Correlation of variables
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Table 5 Heterotrait–Monotrait ratio (HTMT) results
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Table 6 Effects analysis of a household’s recycling intention for HPW based on the standardized path coefficients
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Table A1 Questionnaire items
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Xu, BX., Liu, Z. & Rustam, A. Application of extended theory of planned behavior to explore household pharmaceutical waste recycling intentions: a case study of China. J Mater Cycles Waste Manag 25, 2870–2886 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-023-01721-9

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