Understanding residents’ behaviour intention of recycling plastic waste in a densely populated megacity of emerging economy

Plastic waste is choking our planet, but the recycling rate is still universally low. Understanding factors affecting recycling behaviours can help address this pressing issue. Taking Dhaka as an example, this study explores the determinants of the intentions to recycle plastic waste. We employed the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) and extended it with two additional variables: Moral Norms, and Perceived sufficiency of knowledge and policy support. Survey data of 577 were collected and analysed using PLS-SEM. The findings suggest attitude, perceived behavioural control, moral norms and subjective norms significantly impact recycling intention, among which moral norms (β = 0.148, p < 0.05) acts even more strongly than subjective norms (β = 0.12, p < 0.05). Moreover, low level perception of knowledge and policy support makes people perceive less control over recycling behaviour (β = 0.188, p < 0.05), but actually reinforce their recycling intention (β = −0.091, p < 0.1). This study enriches the theoretical discussion of TPB, and contributes to the efforts of encouraging plastic recycling in populated megacity of emerging economy.