Factors affecting households’ recycling behaviour in Melaka: An application of theory of planned behaviour

Environmental issues have been debated and were discussed at the United Nations Conference (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1992. Since then solid waste management has become one of the main challenges for Malaysia owing to the increase in generation of solid waste, the failure of government recycling programmes and a low national recycling rate. To date there has been no Malaysian research based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and so the general objective of this study was to use the TPB as a framework for an investigation of behavioural determinants of household recycling behaviour in Melaka. The proposed modification of the TPB model comprises 13 constructs – intention to recycle, attitude towards recycling, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, commitment to the environment, interconnectedness with the environment, social relative benefits, ascription of responsibility, internal normative beliefs, external normative beliefs, mass media, self-efficacy and facilitating conditions – which were hypothesised would explain household recycling behaviour