Abstract

Purpose: This paper (1) identifies the factors that affect people's changing habits towards waste sorting, (2) evaluates the benefits of waste sorting to the environment and (3) designs communication strategies to change people's behavior and habits in sorting plastic waste in Ho Chi Mnh City, Vietnam. Research design, data and methodology: Using the data from 309 people that are living in Ho Chi Minh City and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), to evaluate variables and test the hypotheses. Results: Research results show that attitudes, subjective standards, behavioral control, and facilities affect people's intention to classify plastic waste. We find that environmental concerns greatly influence people's attitudes. In contrast, environmental concerns have a relatively weaker effect on people's degree of behavioral control. Conclusion: Environmental protection is a matter of concern in the world. In Vietnam, this issue has been institutionalized into law to create a basis for improving the effectiveness of environmental protection activities. This article has some limitations. Firstly, sample is limited to HCMC residents; the study results are not representative of the entire population of Vietnam. This paper is based on cross-sectional data, which is not the best way to establish a causal relationship between the intention to sort plastic waste and its drivers.