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Public acceptance of recycling infrastructure is critical for advancing circular economy transitions, yet resistance frequently arises—even among environmentally aware populations—posing persistent challenges for waste system planning and governance. This study develops and tests a novel relational extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (relational-TAM) to examine residents’ acceptance of a proposed plastic recycling facility in Japan. Drawing on a large-scale survey (n = 509), the framework integrates environmental values, place attachment, risk perception, recycling knowledge, and civic engagement within a unified analytical model. Structural equation modeling, bootstrap mediation analysis, and hierarchical regression are employed. The results show that environmental values are the strongest and most consistent predictor of facility acceptance, exceeding the influence of perceived risk, knowledge, or place-based attachment. Civic engagement, while significantly shaped by environmental values, risk perception, and attachment, does not directly or automatically enhance acceptance, nor does it mediate the effects of these antecedents. Recycling knowledge increases risk perception but exhibits no direct contribution to acceptance. Hierarchical regression further confirms that the relational-TAM framework substantially outperforms conventional risk–attachment models in explaining acceptance. Overall, the findings indicate that public acceptance of recycling infrastructure is fundamentally value-centered rather than a simple outcome of participation or procedural inclusion. For waste infrastructure governance, this suggests that policy strategies should move beyond information provision and participatory access alone, and place greater emphasis on value-based communication and long-term sustainability framing when introducing recycling facilities.
Nakao et al. (Fri,) studied this question.