Study on the Factors Affecting Consumers’ Participation in Regulated Recycling of Waste Lead-Acid Batteries: Practice Research from China

Abstract

In China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of lead-acid batteries (LABs), more than 3.6 million tons of waste lead-acid batteries (WLABs) are generated every year, yet only 30% of them can be recycled in a well-regulated manner, while the remaining 70% are recycled through informal channels, resulting in serious waste of resources and environmental pollution. More than half of the country’s LAB consumers are e-car and e-bike owners. Based on the theoretical model of unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT), this study examines and investigates the factors that affect consumers’ participation in the regulated recycling of WLABs and finds that consumers’ performance expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions can significantly increase their willingness to participate in regulated recycling, while effort expectancy can reduce such willingness. In addition, this paper also includes an analysis of moderating variables such as age and education. Finally, the paper points out the current lack of consumer-oriented recycling management measures in China and proposes policy recommendations in three aspects: system, channel, and incentive ones, to provide references for promoting the regulated recycling and sustainable use of WLABs.

1. Introduction

LABs are a kind of battery boasting the longest history, widest application and largest consumption. With it being a mature and safe technology, having a low material price, a good recycling ability and reliable charging and discharging performances, LABs occupy an absolute advantage in the battery market and are widely used in various fields such as transportation, electric power, communication, national defense technology, etc. China is the world’s largest producer and consumer of LABs. In 2021, it produced 251,874,000 kVAh of LABs, up to 13.7% of them year after year, and processed 4,375,000 tons of WLABs, from which about 2.8 million tons of recycled lead was obtained. However, only about 30% of WLABs can be recycled through formal channels each year, while most of the rest of them are recycled through informal channels. There are only 110 enterprises with formal qualifications for WLAB recycling and processing in China, which have been integrated into the unified management of the national solid waste management information system. They collect, store, utilize and process WLABs in accordance with the Technical Specification of Pollution Control for Treatment of Waste Lead-acid Batteries (HJ 519-2020), and they are able to meet the national standards related to pollution control. In contrast, informal recycling enterprises do not need to pay taxes and have no environmental protection cost, so they have a great price advantage in the recycling market, and their way of dismantling WLABs is simple and rough, which leads to not only a great waste of the lead resources, but also serious heavy-metal pollution, water pollution and many other environmental impacts.

Consumers are the end point of LAB consumption, and also the starting point of WLAB recycling. Whether consumers, the first link in the recycling chain of WLABs, are willing to participate in recycling directly determines not only the quality and level of WLAB recycling, but also whether WLABs flow to formal or informal recycling channels. The Interim Measures for the Management of Lead-acid Battery Recycling issued by the National Development and Reform Commission states that by the end of 2025, the rate of regulated recycling of WLABs should reach over 70%. To accomplish this goal, an accurate understanding of the consumers’ behavioral preferences and choices and the incentives for the consumers to participate in formal recycling of WLABs will help to build a better policy implementation mechanism and solve the problem of the problematic and unregulated recycling of WLABs.

A review of the existing literature reveals that the current studies on the factors influencing consumers’ behavior with regard to waste recycling are mainly focused on the area of e-waste (e.g., Wang et al., 2018; Zhang et al., 2018; Wang et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020; Dhir, 2020, 2021), and the studies on the recycling of WLABs are focused on the analysis of recycling policies [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. For example, Quirijnen (1999) states that favorable factors for successful WLAB recycling include the availability of waste batteries, efficient recycling, high-end lead-refining technology, effective regulation and necessary financial support [8]; with regard to the coexistence of regulated and unregulated recycling in India, Joshi et al. (2021) used a system dynamics model to quantitatively assess the role of three policy instruments, i.e., tax breaks for recyclers, subsidies for recyclers and subsidies for remanufacturers in promoting regulated recycling [9]. A similar trend exists for the studies of WLAB recycling in China. Liu et al. (2015) evaluated the life cycle of LABs of e-bikes and pointed out that recycling the batteries after they are scrapped can significantly reduce their environmental impact [10]. Xi et al. (2015) pointed out after performing a calculation that the current recycling rate of WLABs in China is too low, and there is a need to accelerate the recycling, recovery and reuse of WLABs in the face of their increasing production [11]. Sun et al. (2017), through a whole-life-cycle analysis of LABs, noted that according to the current industrial situation in China, the production of primary lead could be reduced by 30% if WLABs were properly managed [12]. Tian et al. (2017) pointed out that in the recycling of WLABs, not only the direct economic cost and environmental impact of the recycling process should be considered, but also the indirect emissions should be paid attention to, and the economic benefits and environmental impact under the whole life cycle system should be taken into account [13]. Tian et al. (2021) analyzed China’s policies from 2000 to 2015, aiming at the problems of regulated and unregulated recycling in China, and they pointed out that under the condition of limited total government expenditure, the optimal policy combination was to implement a tax reduction and subsidy policy in the growth period of the industry and strengthen the level of supervision during the mature period of the industry [14].

In general, the research on the behavior of waste recycling subjects has made some progress, but there are still some research gaps. (1) Most of the research on the behavior of waste recycling subjects is focused on electrical and electronic waste, and the research on the behavior of LAB recycling subjects is still in the initial stage. The influencing factors and inner mechanisms of the behavior of WLAB recycling subjects are yet to be analyzed in detail. (2) Current waste recycling research mostly focuses on recycling models, channels, methods and regulation, mostly from the perspective of government management, while the active participation of consumers as recycling subjects is often ignored, and their participation is deemed to be a passive implementation element.

In response to the above problems, this paper analyzes the influencing factors and the intrinsic mechanism of the subjects’ behavior by making a questionnaire survey to collect LAB consumers’ cognition, attitude and behavior intentions about participating in regulated recycling and the current dilemma they face, in order to explore effective policy incentives and promote the efficiency of WLAB recycling. The following contents of the paper are organized as follows: Section 2 introduces the theoretical basis and research hypotheses of this study; Section 3 describes the research methodology; Section 4 gives the results of the data analysis; Section 5 discusses the research findings, analyzes their theoretical and practical implications, and points out the limitations of the study and the direction of further research; finally, Section 6 gives the research conclusions.

2. Theoretical Basis and Research Hypotheses

2.1. Theoretical Basis

The unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) is a comprehensive model that was developed by Venkatesh et al. (2003) after integrating the main factors based on eight theoretical models, i.e., the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the technology acceptance model (TAM), the motivational model (MM), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the Combined TAM and TPB (C-TAM-TPB) one, the model of PC utilization (MPCU), the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) and the social cognitive theory (SCT) [15]. The UTAUT is used to help administrators understand the drivers of users’ acceptance of new technologies and then, intervene or encourage the use of new technologies, accordingly. The model uses four core variables, namely performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI) and facilitation conditions (FC) to explore the users’ behavior intentions about new technologies, and it takes gender and age as moderating variables to systematically analyze the influencing factors of the users’ behavior intentions.

At present, the UTAUT has been generally accepted by scholars and widely used in environmental protection, networks-related and other fields where new technologies are promoted (MD Williams et al., 2015; Venkatesh et al., 2016; Khorasanizadeh et al., 2016; Shrivastava et al., 2020; Blut et al., 2021) [16,17,18,19,20]. The regulated recycling of WLABs can be viewed as both a way and a technology of resource recovery. Therefore, this study pioneers the application of the model to the study of the factors influencing the behavior of WLAB recycling and analyzes the various factors that influence consumers’ participation in the regulated recycling of WLABs.

2.2. Research Hypotheses

2.2.1. Performance Expectancy (PE)

Performance expectancy (PE) refers to the degree of utility that is perceived by consumers in the process of WLAB recycling, which generally includes two aspects: economic value and environmental value. In China, a middle-income country, all kinds of wastes are not only items to be dealt with, but also commodities with certain economic value, which can be recycled and reused. In other words, consumers can often gain some economic benefits from participating in WLAB recycling, i.e., performance expectancy brought by economic value, as verified in many pieces of literature (Wang et al., 2019; Zhang et al., 2020) [3,21]. On the other hand, empirical studies in recent years have also shown that environmental values affect people’s environmental behaviors (Zhang et al., 2019; Liu et al., 2020) [22,23]. Therefore, Hypothesis 1 is proposed below.

H1: 

PE positively affects the consumers’ behavior intention (BI) to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.

2.2.2. Effort Expectancy (EE)

Effort expectancy (EE) refers to the degree of easiness for consumers to participate in the process of WLAB recycling (Venkatesh et al., 2003). At present in China, only the enterprises that have obtained the WLAB recycling certificate from the environmental department can carry out the regulated recycling of WLABs. Generally speaking, consumers can participate in the regulated recycling more easily when they have easier access to these qualified enterprises. Some studies also show that EE has a positive effect on BI (Arman and Hartati., 2015; Shrivastava et al., 2020) [19,24]. Therefore, Hypothesis 2 is proposed below.

H2: 

EE positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.

2.2.3. Social Influence (SI)

Social Influence (SI) refers to the degree of influence that consumers feel from the surroundings, including the government’s promotion of relevant laws and regulations, and the influence of family and friends. It has been shown that consumers’ environmental behavior will change positively due to the positive influence of government, media and social circles (Wang et al., 2020; Zheng et al., 2020; Mak et al., 2021; Hua et al., 2021) [25,26,27,28]. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is proposed below.

H3: 

SI positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.

2.2.4. Facilitating Conditions (FC)

Facilitating conditions (FC) refers to the objective technical support that can facilitate consumers’ participation in recycling. The availability of recycling facilities and the accessibility of recycling channels directly affect the consumers’ willingness to participate in recycling (Mak et al., 2021; Chen et al., 2021) [27,29]. Therefore, Hypothesis 4 is proposed below.

H4: 

FC positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.

2.2.5. Actual Behavior (AB)

BI is generally considered to be the best predictor of actual behavior (AB), and the initial motivation for AB is derived from the consumers’ personal evaluations of that behavior. The UTAUT model assumes that BI has a positive effect on AB. Therefore, Hypothesis 5 is proposed and Hypotheses 6–9, the mediating effects, are also put forward based on Hypotheses 1–5.

H5: 

LAB consumers’ BI to participate in regulated recycling is positively correlated to their AB.

H6: 

LAB consumers’ PE indirectly affects their AB through BI.

H7: 

LAB consumers’ EE indirectly affects their AB through BI.

H8: 

The SI on LAB consumers indirectly affects their AB through BI.

H9: 

LAB consumers’ FC indirectly affects their AB through BI.

2.2.6. Moderating Variables

Age (AG) and education (ED) of LAB consumers may play moderating roles in their participation in regulated recycling. Some studies suggest that highly educated groups tend to be more concerned about social welfare and therefore, more supportive of environmentally friendly behaviors (Meyer, 2015; Gradus et al., 2019; Manuel and Maria, 2020) [30,31,32]. In contrast, other findings show that education background seems to be less correlated with environmentally friendly behaviors (Hua et al., 2021; Powdthavee, 2021) [28,33]. In addition, the environmental behaviors of the consumers of different age groups often receive scholars’ attention (Hua et al., 2021; Joana et al., 2021) [28,34]. For these reasons, Hypotheses 10–17 are proposed to analyze the moderating roles that are played by age (AG) and education (ED) as influencing factors, respectively.

All the aforementioned hypotheses form the research framework of this study, as shown in Figure 1.

3. Methodology

3.1. Questionnaire Design and Data Collection

LAB consumers in China are mainly e-car and e-bike owners, who generate more than 50% of the country’s total WLABs (He Y et al., 2020) [35]. To ensure the rationality and validity of the questionnaire, this study adopted a random sampling method to investigate the participation of e-car and e-bike owners in WLAB recycling across the country (Figure 2), and a total of 1107 questionnaires were returned, of which 845 were valid, accounting for 76.33% of them. Of the 845 valid responses, 47% were returned by e-car owners, 20% were returned by e-bike owners, and 33% were returned by owners of both e-cars and e-bikes. By gender, 63% of the respondents were male and 37% of them were female. By age, 49% of the respondents were 30 years old or below, 49% of them were between 31 and 50 years old and 2% of them were over 50 years old. By education background, 14% of them had high school education or below, 72% of them had a university degree and 13% of them had a master’s degree or above.

The questionnaire contained 18 main questions, as shown in

Table 1. Measurement variables.

Variables		Questions
Independent variables	PE	PE1: How harmful do you think it is to the environment to throw away WLABs without recycling?
		PE2: Do you prefer to participate in regulated recycling when you can get some money as a reward?
	EE	EE1: Do you think the establishment of a regulated recycling system helps you understand how to properly participate in environmental causes?
		EE2: Do you think the establishment of a regulated recycling system facilitates your participation in environmental protection?
	SI	SI1: Can the promotion of laws, regulations and recycling knowledge increase your willingness to participate in recycling?
		SI2: If your neighbors or friends tell you about the experience in WLAB recycling, would you also like to practice it?
	PC	FC1: Do you think the WLAB recycling facilities near you are complete?
		FC2: Do you find it convenient in the current situation to send WLABs to the designated recycling location?
Mediating variable	BI	BI1: How willing are you to cooperate in regulated recycling of WLABs?
		BI2: Would you prefer, if possible, to sell WLABs to a regular recycler rather than an irregular one even if the price that is offered by the former is lower?
Moderating variables	AG	AG: What is your age?
	ED	ED: What it your education background?
Dependent variable	AB	AB: Have you been involved in the regulated recycling of WLABs?

, that were used to measure the effect of the independent variables PE, EE, SI and FC, the effect of mediating variable BI, the effect of moderating variables AG and ED and that of dependent variable AB. The respondents selected numbers by moving a slider on a scale of 0–100, which was used to measure their level of agreement with regulated recycling, with 0 representing the strongest disagreement and 100 representing the strongest agreement. In addition, questions on the type of consumer (e-car owner/e-bike owner/owner of both e-car and e-bike) and the consumer opinions and suggestions were also included in the questionnaire to allow for a better policy analysis.

3.2. Data Analysis Method

Firstly, the questionnaire data were analyzed for reliability and validity. Secondly, the structural equation model was used to analyze the effects of core independent variables on the consumers’ behavior intentions to participate in WLAB recycling (H1–H4). Then, the model of mediating effect analysis was used to analyze the effects of the core independent variables and the mediating variables on the consumers’ actual behaviors of participating in WLAB recycling (H5–H9). Finally, the model of moderating effect analysis was used to analyze the moderating effect of the moderating variables (H10–H17). See Section 4 for details on this.

4. Results

4.1. Reliability and Validity Analysis

The authors of this paper used SPSS26.0 to analyze the reliability and consistency of the questionnaire, and the main results are shown in

Table 2. Confirmatory factor analysis.

Latent Variables	Observed Variables	Standard Load	Cronbach’s α	CR	AVE
PE	PE1	0.66	0.741	0.844	0.731
	PE2	0.93
EE	EE1	0.91	0.856	0.901	0.820
	EE2	0.90
SI	SI1	0.91	0.796	0.827	0.706
	SI2	0.78
FC	FC1	0.87	0.734	0.855	0.747
	FC2	0.86
EX	EX1	0.92	0.885	0.928	0.866
	EX2	0.94
AT	AT1	0.85	0.795	0.832	0.712
	AT2	0.84
BI	BI1	0.90	0.788	0.828	0.707
	BI2	0.88

. First, the total correlations of the scale items in the questionnaire were all greater than 0.5, indicating the high internal consistency of the scale. Second, the Cronbach’s α values were all greater than 0.7, indicating that the scale has high reliability. Third, the KMO values and Bartlett’s spherical analysis coefficients of the questionnaire were 0.752 and 4992.29, respectively, with a significance level of 0.000, indicating the high structural validity of the questionnaire. Finally, a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted, and as shown in Table 2, the combined reliabilities (CRs) of the scales were all greater than 0.7, and the average variances extracted (AVEs) were all above 0.5, indicating good reliability and validity.

4.2. Structural Equation Modeling

A structural equation model was constructed using AMOS 24.0, to analyze the factors influencing the consumers’ BI about WLAB recycling (for Hypotheses 1–4). The empirical results showed that the model had a good fit with a chi-square value of 45.81 and a degree of freedom of 25, thus passing the 1% significance test. As shown in

Table 3. Statistical estimates for structural model.

Hypotheses	Correlation	Coefficients (Standardized)	Standard Error	Critical Ratio	Significance	Result of Analysis
H1: PE positively affects the consumers’ behavior intention (BI) to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs	PE→BI	0.26	0.062	7.005	***	Valid
H2: EE positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.	EE→BI	0.16	0.028	5.032	***	Valid
H3: SI positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.	SI→BI	0.37	0.045	7.785	***	Valid
H4: FC positively affects the consumers’ BI to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs.	FC→BI	0.20	0.047	4.740	***	Valid

Note: *** indicates significance at 1% confidence level, respectively.

, the consumers’ PE, EE, SI and FC were able to significantly and positively influence their BI, and the coefficients of influence passed the 1% significance test. The validated research framework and the standardized path coefficients are shown in Figure 3.

4.3. Mediating Effect Analysis

To analyze the mediating effects (for H5–H9), a mediating-effect analysis model was constructed using AMOS 24.0, and the results are shown in

Table 4. Statistical estimates for mediating effect analysis.

Hypotheses	Paths	Coefficients (Standardized)	95% Confidence Interval		Result of Analysis
			Lower Bound	Upper Bound
H5: LAB consumers’ BI to participate in regulated recycling is positively correlated to their AB	BI→AB	0.70	0.669	0.730	Valid
H6: LAB consumers’ PE indirectly affects their AB through BI	PE→BI→AB	0.18	0.131	0.231	Valid
H7: LAB consumers’ EE indirectly affects their AB through BI	EE→BI→AB	0.10	0.055	0.140	Valid
H8: The SI on LAB consumers indirectly affects their AB through BI	SI→BI→AB	0.26	0.188	0.325	Valid
H9: LAB consumers’ FC indirectly affects their AB through BI	FC→BI→AB	0.12	0.064	0.187	Valid

. On the one hand, the analysis results show that BI has a significant positive effect on the consumers’ AB, thus validating the hypothesis that BI is the best predictor of the AB, as proposed in the hypothesis, and the stronger the behavior intention (BI) of the LAB consumers to participate in regulated recycling, then the more likely they are to perform an actual behavior, i.e., Hypothesis 5 (H5) is valid. In addition, Hypotheses 6–9 (H6–H9) were also validated, that is, the LAB consumers’ PE, EE, SI and FC can all indirectly contribute to their participation in regulated recycling through the mediating variable BI. The model had a good fit with a chi-square value of 92.24 and a degree of freedom of 34, thus passing the 1% significance test. The validated standardized mediating effect path and the coefficients are shown in Figure 4.

4.4. Moderating Effect Analysis

According to Wu (2017), the moderating variables were grouped, and a multi-group model analysis was performed using AMOS 24.0 to analyze whether the grouping variables had a moderating effect.

With age (AG) as a grouping variable, the sample was divided into three groups: under 30 years old (young group, sample size 412, or 49% of the total), between 30 and 50 years old (middle-aged group, sample size 412, or 49% of the total) and over 50 years old (elderly group, sample size 21, or 2% of the total), and the regression coefficients were analyzed for significant changes between the groups. The results of multi-group model analysis showed that all of the four restricted parameter models of the measurement intercepts, structural means, structural co-variances and measurement residuals passed the 1% significance test, thus indicating that AG had a significant moderating effect. The RMSEAs of all of the four models were less than 0.08, with NNFI, IFI and CFI all being greater than 0.9, and the models were well fitted. As shown in

Table 5. Statistical estimates for moderating effect analysis (AG).

Hypotheses	Paths	Aged below 30	Aged 30–50	Aged above 50
		Estimate	Estimate	Estimate
H10	PE→(AG)→BI	0.58 ***	0.28 ***	1.12
H11	EE→(AG)→BI	0.09 **	0.15 ***	−0.13
H12	SI→(AG)→BI	0.30 ***	0.40 ***	0.13
H13	FC→(AG)→BI	0.12 *	0.29 ***	0.15

Note: For the convenience of differentiation, the group under 30 years old is defined as “young group”, the group aged 30–50 is defined as “middle-aged group” and the group over 50 is defined as “elderly group”; ***, ** and * indicate significance at 1%, 5% and 10% confidence levels, respectively.

, the effects of EE, SI and FC on BI were greatest in the middle-aged group and second greatest in the young group, with PE having a greater effect on the young group than it did on the middle-aged group, while the effect of none of the four influencing factors was significant in the elderly group.

With education background (ED) as a grouping variable, the sample was divided into three groups: high school and below (basic education group, sample size 122, or 14% of the total), college (higher education group, sample size 612, or 72% of the total), and postgraduate and above (advanced education group, sample size 111, or 13% of the total). The results of the multi-group model analysis showed that the four restricted parameter models all passed the 1% significance test, thus indicating that ED had a significant moderating effect. The RMSEAs of all of the four models were less than 0.08, with NNFI, IFI and CFI all being greater than 0.9, and the models were well fitted. As shown in

Table 6. Statistical estimates for moderating effect analysis (ED).

Hypotheses	Paths	High School and Below	College	Postgraduate and Above
		Estimate	Estimate	Estimate
H14	PE→(ED)→BI	0.58	0.44 ***	0.27
H15	EE→(ED)→BI	0.16 ***	0.14 ***	0.16 ***
H16	SI→(ED)→BI	0.37 *	0.31 ***	0.61 **
H17	FC→(ED)→BI	0.03 ***	0.27 ***	0.05 *

Note: For the convenience of differentiation, the group with a high school education background or below is defined as “basic education group”, the group with a college education background is defined as “higher education group”, and the group with a postgraduate education background or above is defined as “advanced education group”; ***, ** and * indicate significance at 1%, 5% and 10% confidence levels, respectively.

, PE had a significant effect only on the BI of higher education group; EE had a slightly higher effect on the advanced education group and the basic education group than it did on the higher education group; SI had the greatest effect on the advanced education group, which was followed by the basic education group and the higher education group; FC had the greatest promotion effect on the higher education group and a relatively small effect on the advanced education group and the basic education group.

5. Discussion

The factors influencing Chinese consumers’ participation in regulated WLAB recycling were analyzed theoretically according to the magnitude of their influence on the consumers. H1-H4 are valid, indicating that PE, EE, SI and FC can motivate consumers’ behavior intention (BI) to participate in WLAB recycling, and the ranking order of the degree of influence is SI > PE > FC > EE. H5 is valid, indicating that the higher the consumers’ BI is, then the higher the likelihood of their actual behavior (AB) is for WLAB recycling. The analysis results for H6-H9 show that the four core influencing factors, PE, EE, SI and FC, indirectly influence AB through the mediating variable BI. The analysis results for H10–H17 show that the abovementioned mediating effects vary due to differences in age (AG) and education background (ED), i.e., AG and ED have moderating effects on the above mediating process. In terms of age, PE has the greatest effect on the young group (below 30 of age), SI, FC and EE have the greatest effect on the middle-aged group (30–50 years), while none of the four core influencing factors can significantly motivate the elderly group (above 50 of age) to participate in the regulated recycling of WLABs. In terms of education background, the higher education group, who are the most dominant LAB consumer group, is most affected by PE, which is followed by SI and FC, while the basic education group (high school and below) and the advanced education group (postgraduate and above) are not sensitive to PE, but they were more sensitive to SI.

5.1. Theoretical Implication

Although the application of the UTAUT model is not new in the environmental field, this paper presents the first attempt to use it in the sub-field of WLAB recycling. The paper studies the issue of WLAB recycling from the consumers’ perspective, analyzes their sensitivities and difficulties in participating in the recycling process, and theoretically confirms the applicability of the UTAUT model in the field of WLAB recycling. The UTAUT model that has been designed in the study not only verifies the direct effects of PE, EE, SI and FC on the consumers’ behavior intention (BI) to participate in recycling, but also analyzes how these four core factors indirectly influence the consumers’ actual behavior (AB) in WLAB recycling through the mediating variable BI, and points out that factors such as age and education background have a moderating effect on this mediating process, and that different age and education groups respond differently to different motivations.

It is important to note that when the UTAUT model is applied to the study of waste recycling, the meaning of EE differs from the intention of the initial design of the model. The UTAUT model was originally designed to be applied to the technology domain. According to Venkatesh et al. (2003), EE represents the ease with which people can apply a technology, as technological innovation generally leads to an increase in the efficiency of the consumers’ life or production, which involves how it is easy to use that technology. However, the consumers’ participation in waste recycling often means more time and effort are spent, which may reduce the efficiency of their production and life. So, in this paper, we designed explicit variable EE to be that participating in waste recycling can help consumers to understand and participate in environmental causes more easily and correctly, and we changed the logic of the influence relationship from “this technology can improve efficiency so I am willing to use it” to “this action can help me correctly participate in environmental causes so I am willing to do it”. This can be regarded as a point for improvement when the UTAUT model is applied to the research in the field of waste recycling. Therefore, the results of this study extend the scope of the UTAUT model by applying it to the waste recycling field, and provide a paradigm for analyzing people’s behavior in the waste recycling field.

5.2. Practical Implication

When it is compared with developed countries in which more than 85% of WLABs are recycled in a regulated manner, China remains rather weak in this area. This study explores the challenges in WLAB recycling from the perspective of the consumers, and finds that the consumers, as the actors in the first step of recycling, are constrained by SI, PE, FC and other factors, and face some urgent difficulties in the process of participating in recycling. To pinpoint these difficulties, the questionnaire also collected the consumers’ suggestions (see

Table 7. Suggestions from consumers.

S/N	Category of Suggestion	Content of Suggestion	Number of Suggestions	Percentage
1	SI	Strengthen the promotion and popularization of recycling knowledge	82	22.49%
2		Set up WeChat official account or APP to popularize and implement recycling	2	0.54%
3		Implement it together with garbage sorting to cultivate consumer habits	3	0.27%
4		Formulate laws and regulations to realize mandatory recycling	21	5.69%
5		Strengthen recycling supervision to standardize the recycling market	9	2.44%
6		Strengthen the supervision over and rectification of illegal recyclers and support qualified recyclers	8	2.17%
7	FC	Establish a sound organization, improve and increase the regular recycling sites and regular recycling channels, and build a convenient and complete recycling process and system	48	13.01%
8		Set up convenient community-based recycling points	63	17.07%
9		Periodic, fixed-point and centralized recycling	12	3.25%
10		Provide door-to-door recycling service	13	3.52%
11		Establish intelligent recycling stations	3	0.81%
12		Establish an online recycling platform	3	0.81%
13		Cooperate with battery producers or sellers for recycling	3	0.81%
14	PE	Support WLAB recycling through financial subsidies	25	6.78%
15		Give some reward or bonus points to those who participate in recycling	20	5.42%
16		Carry out a variety of recycling activities such as “trade in the old for the new”	10	2.71%
17		Set a reasonable or appropriately increased recycling price	5	1.63%
18		Scientific recycling to reduce environmental damage and human health damage	30	8.40%
19	Other categories		9	2.44%

for a categorized summary) based on which more targeted policy insights were provided.

5.2.1. Urgent Need: Formulate Laws and Regulations, and Increase the Publicity of Regulated Recycling

This study shows that SI is the most important factor in promoting consumer participation in the recycling of WLABs, and the respondents’ suggestions that are shown in Table 7 also indicate that nearly 34% of consumers believe that the legal regulation and knowledge of regulated recycling are necessary.

On the one hand, the publicity of the regulated recycling of WLABs should be increased. Currently, Chinese consumers do not have a deep enough understanding of the hazards of WLABs and the knowledge of recycling. More than 20% of the respondents suggested strengthening the publicity and popularization of regulated recycling. Some suggested, for example, popularizing recycling knowledge and guiding consumers to participate in regulated recycling through online channels such as Weibo, WeChat, APP and TV, or gradually cultivating the consumers’ habits of participating in regulated recycling in the most acceptable way through the recycling system of waste materials that are currently promoted in China.

On the other hand, policy tools such as laws and regulations should be fully used to monitor and deal with the chaos of illegal recycling and to regulate the behavior of the consumers. At present, the National Waste List of China clearly classifies WLABs as hazardous waste materials. Technical specifications and industry documents such as Technical Specifications for Collection, Storage and Transportation of Hazardous Wastes (GB 2025-2012), Technical Policy for Pollution Prevention and Control in Recycling and Production of Lead-acid Batteries, Technical Specifications for Pollution Control in Waste Lead-acid Batteries Treatment (HJ 519-2020), Interim Measures for the Management of Lead-acid Battery Recycling mainly guide the standardized collection and storage of WLABs from the perspective of enterprises. China lacks policy actions to formally regulate the recycling of WLABs from the perspective of the consumers. Lacking policy requirements and norms, the consumers, as the owners of WLABs, will not be subject to corresponding supervision and punishment when they dispose of WLABs at will, and they will often unconsciously adopt the way of “the highest bidder gets it” when they sell their WLABs. Illegal recyclers offer higher prices with cost advantages, so it is easier for them to obtain WLABs. Therefore, it is imperative to formulate laws and regulations from the perspective of consumers, publicize the knowledge of regulated recycling, restrain and supervise consumers, resist the illegal collection and reselling of WLABs, and standardize the recycling behavior from the source.

5.2.2. Key Conditions: Unblock Recycling Channels and Improve the Convenience of Regulated Recycling

For consumers who have a good knowledge of WLAB recycling, smooth recycling channels are the key conditions for them to participate in regulated recycling. Of the consumer suggestions that are listed in Table 7, the biggest proportion of them are about the feedback on facilitating conditions (FC). More than 39% of the feedback asked for the establishment of convenient recycling facilities to encourage people to participate in regulated recycling. At the end of 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the Implementation Plan of Extended Producer Responsibility System (Guo Ban Fa [2016] No.99), pointing out that LABs are the key area of EPR implementation, and encouraging enterprises to adopt the modes of independent recycling, joint recycling or entrust them to establish recycling networks. The Interim Measures for the Management of Lead-acid Battery Recycling (Draft for Comments) issued in 2020 by the National Development and Reform Commission requires the establishment of recycling networks through reverse recycling, professional third-party recycling or co-construction of recycling networks. In China at present, some LAB manufacturers and lead recyclers are exploring cooperation options in co-building or self-building large-scale centralized transfer points and collection outlets, which has promoted the efficiency of regulated recycling. For the consumers, however, small flexible recycling channels are more important. Now, consumers deal with their WLABs mainly in four ways. The first one is to directly hand them over to the vendor or repairer during repair; the second one is to return them through online recycling channels; the third one is to sell them directly to waste recyclers; the fourth one is to keep them without disposing of them. Obviously, the latter two ways are much more convenient than the first two, which is the main reason why illegal recyclers are controlling more than 80% of the recycling market at present. This also explains why more than 34% of the respondents suggested establishing community-based recycling points to facilitate the consumers’ participation in regulated recycling. In addition, some respondents suggested promoting recycling through the use of information network technology. The moderating effect analysis results of this study show that LAB consumers who are aged below 50 are sensitive to the factor of FC. These consumers grew up in the era of the rise of the digital network in China, and therefore, have a high acceptance of the application of new technologies. With the development of big data and IOT (Internet of Things) technologies, the role of new technologies in promoting consumers’ participation in regulated recycling is increasing.

Therefore, we can make full use of the IOT technology, establish a full lifecycle traceability system for the LABs and open up online and offline recycling channels in parallel (Wang et al., 2020) [36]. It is necessary to unify the coding standards at the national level, identify each LAB by QR code, collect operation data in real time by using the mobile internet technology, and build an all-round, multi-level and full-coverage LAB production and flow management network that facilitates consumers inquiries about WLAB environmental information, recycling locations, recycling prices, etc., and improves the recycling efficiency and people’s enthusiasm for regulated recycling through online APPs and offline smart recycling points.

5.2.3. Incentive Mechanism: Explore Economic Policies and Exert the Leverage of Economic Measures

Another important factor affecting the consumers’ participation in regulated recycling is performance expectancy (PE), on which more than 16% of the respondents gave their feedback. At present, the main measure to implement the EPR system among the LAB producers in China is to require them to achieve a fixed recycling rate that is based on the target responsibility system, but there is a lack of incentive measures for the consumers. In contrast, there is a deposit refund system for WLABs in the United States. The Battery Council International (BCI) of the United States has established the BCI Model Legislation, according to which the consumers must return the waste battery or pay a deposit when purchasing a new one, and they get the deposit back after returning the waste battery. This system covers over 90% of the US population, and it has effectively promoted the recycling of waste batteries. Another example in this area is the fund system for waste household appliances in Taiwan, China, where a resource recovery fund management committee was established to levy funds on the producers and subsidize the recyclers, which indirectly raised the price of the wastes to be recycled and encouraged the consumers to participate in recycling. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a deposit system and fund system, open up the IOT channel and form a compensation and incentive mechanism for the regulated recycling of WLABs by means of credit points and monetary rewards, so as to exert the incentive effect of the economic measures to directly or indirectly encourage the consumers to participate in the regulated recycling system.

5.3. Research Limitations and Future Prospects

This study discussed the application of the UTAUT model in the field of WLAB recycling, and it improved the connotation of performance expectancy (PE) in the model’s application process. Although the integrity of the model was ensured, it did not produce significant results in terms of practical revelations. That is to say, although the model confirms PE’s incentive effect on the consumers’ participation in recycling, it only reflects the psychological process of “this action can help me correctly participate in environmental causes so I am willing to do it”, but it cannot produce an explicit incentive. It can only play a significant role in the long-term practice and cultivation of environmental protection behavior.

Further studies need to be carried out in two aspects. The first one is to explore the policy and practical revelation that performance expectation (PE) can bring; the second one is to use the UTAUT model to analyze the behaviors of other actors (such as dealers, recyclers, producers, etc.) in the process of waste recycling and explain the factors that influence their behaviors to provide professional insights for the formulation of recycling policies.

6. Conclusions

Encouraging the consumers’ participation in the regulated recycling of WLABs will not only help China to achieve ecological civilization and green development, but also have reference significance for global resource conservation and environmental protection. Based on the UTAUT model, this study analyzed the factors that influence LAB consumers’ participation in regulated recycling, and verified the feasibility of applying the model to the field of waste recycling. The research results show that the publicity of policies and regulations, the incentives of economic measures, the establishment and improvement of recycling channels, and the environmental knowledge that is acquired by consumers in the process of participating in recycling can all promote their participation in regulated recycling, and this promotion effect is more significant among consumers who are aged below 50. In China at present, the WLAB recycling policy is formulated mainly for the producers, without much consideration given to the consumers, who are the source of recycling. With the development of big data and IOT technologies, it is necessary to comprehensively use information technology to create a more flexible WLAB recycling channel that is both online and offline, establish a faster way to obtain recycling information, explore a more effective incentive mechanism for consumers’ participation and promote the realization of the regulated recycling of WLABs.