Solid waste management behavior among the student community: integrating environmental knowledge and situational factors into the theories of planned behavior and value belief norm

This research goes beyond the attitude-intention link to investigate the determinants of solid waste management behavior among the student community. The study proposes an extended model comprised of constructs from psychological frameworks, the theory of planned behavior and value-belief-norm theory by integrating environmental knowledge and situational factors as the intrinsic and extrinsic variables. A self-administered questionnaire method with a sample of 1,105 and structural equation modeling to test the statistical significance of the model revealed that our novel model includes a satisfactory level of prediction power, which is superior to existing theories. Findings show that intention, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control and attitude had a significant positive influence on behavior. While biospheric and altruistic values showed positive relationships with belief, moral norms and environmental knowledge was found to be crucial in forming attitude. The results of this work could be used by governments, policymakers and researchers to design and implement effective waste management systems.