How to encourage farmers to recycle pesticide packaging wastes: Subsidies VS social norms

To improve the living conditions in rural regions, encouraging farmers to recycle pesticide packaging wastes (PPWs) is crucial. This paper, therefore, seeks to theoretically analyze the impact of subsidies, social norms, and other complementary factors on farmers' attitudes towards recycling. The empirical test is then conducted using survey data from the four counties in Qiantang River, Zhejiang province, the source area. The results suggest that providing subsidies and forming social norms would encourage farmers to recycle PPWs. The efficacy of subsidies as a tool to enhance farmers’ PPW recycling behavior can be improved with an increase in farm size. Nonetheless, subsidies fail to motivate farmers with high incomes to recycle PPWs. In this case, social norms can be used to significantly strengthen the recycling behavior of farmers with high incomes and village cadres. The descriptive social norms governed by village rules and regulations can prompt farmers to recycle PPWs. However, the imperative social norms forced by the government cannot. In general, subsidies and social norms have complementary effects in encouraging farmers to recycle PPWs. When encouraging large-scale farmers to recycle PPWs, subsidies are more suitable, while subsidies can partly be substituted by social norms when promoting village cadres to recycle PPWs. Social norms exclusively dominate when encouraging high-income farmers to recycle PPWs.