Potentialities of the environmental law and policy for e-waste recycling: a vista for sustainable development
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
E-waste production contains damaged, obsolete, non-functional, old, or expired goods, which are allocated into two sources: industrial and household production. Disposing e-waste will hurt public well-being. This study was conducted to examine the effects of environmental law and policy on the connections between environmental attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and e-waste recycling. The chosen study location was the southern region of Malaysia, and consisted of selected individual residents. The methodology used was quantitative, and this study used a questionnaire as the primary material; 258 respondents answered the survey. The data investigation method used was moderated regression analysis. This study concludes that environmental attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control positively affect e-waste recycling behavior. Interaction investigation in regression shows that environmental laws and regulations can develop the control of environmental attitudes and subjective norms on e-waste recycling behavior. In contrast, environmental laws and regulations do not moderate the correlation between perceived behavioral control and e-waste recycling. Thus, the Malaysian government requires a strong legal and institutional structure for environmental protection and self-control practices to foster sustainable development.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Aboelmaged, M. (2021). E-waste recycling behavior: an integration of recycling habits into the theory of planned behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 278, 124182.
Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 50(2), 179–211.
Awan, A., Hussain, K., Zafar, M., Butt, M. J., & Yaghmour, S. (2025). Impact of nations’ green behavior on green growth by considering the moderating role of environmental policy stringency. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 36(2), 309–328.
Bernama (2025). Enforcement on e-waste dumping to be tightened says Nik Nazmi. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2025/02/25/enforcement-on-e-waste-dumping-to-be-tightened-says-nik-nazmi
Bird, R., Baum, Z. J., Yu, X., & Ma, J. (2022). The regulatory environment for lithium-ion battery recycling. ACS Energy Letters, 7(2), 736–740
Bhaskar, K., & Kumar, B. (2019). Electronic waste management and sustainable development goals: Is there a business case for linking the two? Journal of Indian Business Research, 11(2), 120–137.
Chao, C. M., Yu, T. K., & Yu, T. Y. (2023). Understanding the factors influencing recycling behavior in college students: the role of interpersonal altruism and environmental concern. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 24(5), 969–985.
Corrado, L., Fazio, A., & Pelloni, A. (2022). Pro-environmental attitudes, local environmental conditions, and recycling behavior. Journal of Cleaner Production, 362, 132399.
Darby, L., & Obara, L. (2005). Household recycling behavior and attitudes towards the disposal of small electrical and electronic equipment. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 44(1), 17–35.
Datsyuk, P., Mikhaylov, A., & Pinter, G. (2023). Group correlation analysis of socio-economic indicators and the volume of collected e-waste in European countries. Environmental Research Communications, 5(11), 115004.
Dias, P. R., Cenci, M. P., Bernardes, A. M., & Huda, N. (2022). What drives WEEE recycling? A comparative study concerning legislation, collection, and recycling. Waste Management & Research, 40(10), 1527-1538.
Dong, H., Zhang, Y., & Chen, T. (2023). A study on farmers’ participation in environmental protection in the context of rural revitalization: the moderating role of policy environment. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 1768.
Dutta, D., & Goel, S. (2021). Understanding the gap between formal and informal e-waste recycling facilities in India. Waste Management, 125, 163–171.
Grandhi, S. P., Dagwar, P. P., & Dutta, D. (2024). Policy pathways to sustainable e-waste management: a global review. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances, 100473.
Hamzah, T. A. A. T., Yahya, A. S. M., & Shafie, A. (2022). The influence of demographic variables to e-waste management practices in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Geografia, 18(3), 44–56.
He, Y., Kiehbadroudinezhad, M., Hosseinzadeh-Bandbafha, H., Gupta, V. K., Peng, W., Lam, S. S., Tabatabaei, M., & Aghbashlo, M. (2024). Driving sustainable circular economy in electronics: A comprehensive review on environmental life cycle assessment of e-waste recycling. Environmental Pollution, 342, 123081.
Heberlein, T. A. (2012). Navigating Environmental Attitudes. OUP.
Hulin, C., Netemeyer, R., and Cudeck, R. (2001). Can a Reliability Coefficient Be Too High? Journal of Consumer Psychology, 10(1), 55–58.
Ismail, H., & Hanafiah, M. M. (2021). Evaluation of e-waste management systems in Malaysia using life cycle assessment and material flow analysis. Journal of Cleaner Production, 308, 127358.
Jain, M., Kumar, D., Chaudhary, J., Kumar, S., Sharma, S., & Verma, A. S. (2023). Review on e-waste management and its impact on the environment and society. Waste Management Bulletin, 1(3), 34–44.
Jiang, Y. (2024). A game-theoretic approach to promoting waste management within the framework of a circular economy: implications for environmental protection. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 31(5), 6977–6991.
Kline, R. B. (2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (2nd Ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
Krejcie, R. V., & Morgan, D. W. (1970). Sample size determination table. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 30(3), 607–610.
Kyriakopoulos, G. L. (2021). Environmental legislation in European and international contexts: legal practices and social planning toward the circular economy. Laws, 10(1), 3.
Milfont, T. L., & Duckitt, J. (2010). The environmental attitudes inventory: a valid and reliable measure to assess the structure of environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30(1), 80–94.
Mohamad, N. S., Thoo, A. C., & Huam, H. T. (2022). The determinants of consumers’ e-waste recycling behaviour through the lens of an extended theory of planned behaviour. Sustainability, 14(15), 9031.
Moumeni, A. (2024). Green supply chain management as a strategy to achieve sustainable development: The Tokyo Olympic Games 2020 as a model. International Journal of Procurement Management, 20(3), 350–364.
Moustairas, I., Vardopoulos, I., Kavouras, S., Salvati, L., & Zorpas, A. A. (2022). Exploring factors that affect public acceptance of establishing an urban environmental education and recycling center. Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, 25, 100605.
Mulakkal, M. C., Castillo, A. C., Taylor, A. C., Blackman, B. R., Balint, D. S., Pimenta, S., & Charalambides, M. N. (2021). Advancing mechanical recycling of multilayer plastics through finite element modeling and environmental policy. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 166, 105371.
Negash, Y. T., Sarmiento, L. S. C., Tseng, M. L., Lim, M. K., & Ali, M. H. (2021). Engagement factors for household waste sorting in Ecuador: improving perceived convenience and environmental attitudes enhances waste sorting capacity. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 175, 105893.
Neves, S. A., Marques, A. C., & de Sá Lopes, L. B. (2024). Is environmental regulation keeping e-waste under control? Evidence from e-waste exports in the European Union. Ecological Economics, 216, 108031.
Noor, N. H. M., Mustafa, M. A. S., Saharom, M., & Shamsol Kamal, N. S. S. (2022). Understanding Malaysian household waste separation: an extended theory of planned behavior. Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Environment (MySE), 9(1), 19–35.
Noor, N. H. M., & Nordin, N. B. (2023). Undang-undang dan dasar alam sekitar terhadap pengasingan sisa domestik: kajian kesan tidak langsung kesedaran masyarakat. Asian Journal of Environment, History and Heritage, 7(2), 25–39.
Noor, N. H. M., Soleman, N. A. F., & Azuan, A. S. K. (2023). To recycle or not to recycle? Factors affecting Malaysian residents intention for recycling e-waste. Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), 8(2), e002102.
Puzzo, G., & Prati, G. (2024). Unraveling the influence of convenience situational factors on e waste recycling behaviors a goal framing theory approach. Sustainable Development, 33(1), 1174–1191.
Rakhmawati, T., Damayanti, S., Jati, R. K., & Astrini, N. J. (2023). An extended TPB model of waste-sorting intention: a case study of Indonesia. Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, 34(5), 1248–1268.
Rautela, R., & Yadav, B. R. (2023). E-waste policies, regulation, and legislation in developed and developing countries. In Arya, S. & Kumar, S. (Eds). Global E-Waste Management Strategies and Future Implications (pp. 209–227). Elsevier.
Rene, E. R., Sethurajan, M., Ponnusamy, V. K., Kumar, G., Dung, T. N. B., Brindhadevi, K., & Pugazhendhi, A. (2021). Electronic waste generation, recycling, and resource recovery: Technological perspectives and trends. Journal of Hazardous Materials, 416, 125664.
Rodzi, Z. M., Amin, F. A. M., Mohmad, S., & Al-Quran, A. (2024, May). Unlocking the challenges of household e-waste recycling in Malaysia. In International Conference on Governance, Management & Social Innovation (ICGMSI 2023) (pp. 173–186). Atlantis Press.
Sanghvi, H. (2023). Electronic waste taking over the globe: an overview of the law in Malaysia, India, China and the United Kingdom. Asian Journal of Law and Policy, 3(3), 105–117.
Shahabuddin, M., Uddin, M. N., Chowdhury, J. I., Ahmed, S. F., Uddin, M. N., Mofijur, M., & Uddin, M. A. (2023). A review of the recent development, challenges, and opportunities of electronic waste (e-waste). International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 20(4), 4513–4520.
Shaharudin, M. R., Said, R., Hotrawaisaya, C., Nik Abdul Rashid, N. R., & Azman Perwira, N. F. S. (2023). Linking determinants of the youth’s intentions to dispose of portable e-waste with the proper disposal behavior in Malaysia. The Social Science Journal, 60(4), 680–694.
Simsar, A. (2021). Young children’s ecological footprint awareness and environmental attitudes in Turkey. Child Indicators Research, 14(4), 1387–1413.
Vijayan, R. V., Krishnan, M. M., Parayitam, S., Duraisami, S. P. A., & Saravanaselvan, N. R. (2023). Exploring e-waste recycling behavior intention among the households: evidence from India. Cleaner Materials, 7, 100174.
Yahya, A. S. M., Hamzah, T. A. A. T., & Shafie, A. (2022). Knowledge of E-waste recycling among communities in Selangor, Malaysia. Southeast Asia: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 22(1), 5–22.
Yang, B. C., Lee, C. H., & Suryawan, I. W. K. (2025). Resilient socio-technical systems for adaptive consumer e-waste management. Sustainable Cities and Society, 118, 106026.
Yu, H. F., Hasanuzzaman, M., & Rahim, N. A. (2024). Modelling, analysis and forecasting of photovoltaic waste in Malaysia towards sustainable recycling by 2050. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 209, 107774.
Zhang, J., & Li, S. (2023). The impact of human capital on green technology innovation—moderating role of environmental regulations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6), 4803.
Zhao, L., Zhang, L., Sun, J., & He, P. (2022). Can public participation constraints promote green technological innovation of Chinese enterprises? The moderating role of government environmental regulatory enforcement. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 174, 121198.