Rethinking Community Engagement in Garment Recycling Program: A Social Exchange Perspective

Municipal governments worldwide face mounting pressure to implement effective community-based garment recycling programs as public awareness of sustainable fashion intensifies, yet actual participation remains low. This persistent attitude–behavior gap—where individuals espouse environmental concern but fail to act accordingly, underscores the need to understand the psychological and contextual factors that influence recycling behavior. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory (SET), this study investigates how community members evaluate their engagement in garment recycling programs and respond to different incentive mechanisms, viewing participation as a rational cost–benefit exchange. As part of a larger collaborative project with a renowned environmental NGO and a technology company developing smart recycling bins, this research adopts a two-study mixed-method design comprising focus group interviews and a survey administered following a field experiment in Hong Kong. Study 1 identified four categories of perceived benefits (economic, environmental, psychological, social) and three categories of perceived costs (practical and convenience, emotional, opportunity). Results reveal that recycling intentions increase when perceived benefits outweigh associated costs, with trust in program organizers amplifying perceived benefits beyond practical considerations. Study 2 examined preferences for incentive schemes and found that participants favored financial incentives—particularly immediate and guaranteed rewards, over purely environmental benefits. Together, these findings suggest that enhancing perceived benefits through tangible, timely incentives and building trust via transparent, community-integrated operations are critical to converting environmental awareness into sustained recycling behaviors. The study contributes to the literature by extending Social Exchange Theory to the context of community-based garment recycling and offering actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners seeking to design more trust-driven, incentive-effective recycling interventions.