Effect of information intervention on enhancing the public payment scheme for agricultural plastic waste management

Information intervention has been verified to be effective in influencing individual behavior. Thus, can information intervention reverse the common discrepancy of high intention but poor action among the public about participating in environmental management? Clarifying the issue is critical to facilitating the public payment scheme for agricultural plastic waste management (APWM) to evolve from idea to reality, as well as harnessing potential contributions from the public to promote the sustainability of APWM. In light of these inquiries, the study seeks to reinforce the public's payment for APWM by employing an information strategy based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and to verify the effect of information intervention on the respondents' willingness to pay (WTP) by a randomized controlled trial (RCT). Results showed that the public's WTP for APWM is generally malleable, with information targeting normative beliefs and control beliefs significantly increasing the WTP by CNY 307.2 and CNY 400.5, respectively. Findings imply that the public payment scheme for APWM is characterized by the high perception but weak social norm and lack of effective mechanism. Consequently, it is imperative to prioritize strengthening relevant norm and constructing public payment mechanism, thereby promoting multi-entity cooperation to enhance the APWM in sustainability.