Influencing factors of consumers’ participation in express packaging recycling: a questionnaire survey on the current situation of five provinces in China

Express delivery service volume has recently increased as a result of the booming e-commerce industry, which has contributed to a substantial increase in environmental pollution from express packaging waste. Express package recycling has become a pressing issue to advance China’s carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets. This study adopted structural equation models based on the theory of planned behavior to examine influencing factors of consumers’ participation in express packaging recycling behaviors. Randomly selecting 925 consumers from five Chinese provinces, questionnaires were distributed to collect data. According to the findings, recycling attitudes, subjective norms, perceptual behavioral control, and situational factors are the four elements that have a substantial positive influence on consumers’ recycling intentions. The analysis based on the effect of demographic variables indicates that younger and more educated groups have a stronger intention to recycle express packaging. The findings lead to the recommendation that, on the one hand, the government should concentrate on raising consumers’ environmental awareness and social responsibility to encourage consumers to participate in express packaging recycling. On the other hand, the government needs to take the initiative to improve relevant policies and regulations to establish an express packaging recycling system.