Drivers of Farmers’ Willingness to Recycle Pesticide Packaging Waste: A Configurational Analysis

A mix of internal and external factors affect farmers’ recycling practices with regarding pesticide packaging waste. However, most of the research that has been done so far has concentrated on the individual effects of these elements rather than providing a clear explanation of the intricate mechanisms by which a variety of internal and environmental factors work together to drive recycling behavior. This study builds an integrated “internal–external” factor analysis framework based on Lewin’s Behavior Model, integrating Organizational Support Theory and the Theory of Planned Behavior to close this gap. We examine the many configurational pathways influencing farmers’ willingness to recycle pesticide packaging debris using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The results showed that there are four different configurational approaches that lead to a high readiness to recycle: the information–norm interaction-driven path, the capability–belief-driven path, the norm–emotion endogenous-driven path, and the psychology-driven dominant path. Farmers’ attitudes toward recycling were found to be a key component in all four routes, indicating that it is essential to attaining high recycling willingness. The findings of this study offered policy insights for encouraging recycling behavior and assisted in identifying the intricate causal processes of multi-factor synergy impacting farmers’ propensity to recycle pesticide packaging trash.