Based on norm activation theory, a research framework was built to explore the food waste reduction behavior when consumers eat out. The framework included behavior intentions and four psychological factors: awareness of consequence (persons understanding that actions have consequences), ascription of responsibility (duty to respond), self-efficacy (belief in own skills and capacity), personal norm (individuals’ values to act by socially accepted rules and reduce food waste as a code of conduct and moral obligation). A total of 514 samples from different regions of China were collected through an online survey platform, and the research framework was tested by applying structural equation modeling (SEM). This study found that ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy can effectively activate personal norm to reduce food waste. Personal norm and self-efficacy had a significant positive effect on behavior intentions to reduce food waste. Specifically, self-efficacy had the greatest effect on personal norm, followed by ascription of responsibility, and on behavior intentions to reduce food waste, followed by personal norm. Interestingly, while ascription of responsibility and self-efficacy had an impact on personal norm, awareness of consequence did not significantly influence personal norm to reduce food waste, suggesting that emotional factors are more likely to trigger personal norms that motivate consumers to take action to reduce food waste than cognitive factors. Based on the findings, several suggestions are provided for more effective interventions by restaurants to promote food waste reduction behavior, such as information intervention strategies, displaying information related to food consumption, and reducing the size of plates for some meals.

Environmental pollution as a result of the improper disposal of pesticide packaging wastes (PPWs) has posed serious harm to groundwater, soil and public health. However, few studies focused on PPWs green disposal willingness and behaviors of farmers from the perspective of perceived value. Based on the first-hand data, collected from 635 farmers of grain-producing counties in Henan province of China, through the questionnaire survey method, this paper adopted a structural equation model (SEM) to empirically explore the formation mechanism of perceived value on PPWs green disposal, and green disposal willingness and behaviors were further in-depth investigated. The results showed that the action of farmers’ green disposal of PPWs followed the causal relationship, whereby perceived value→behavioral willingness→behavioral performance, and farmers’ perceived value came from the comprehensive tradeoff and comparison between perceived benefits and perceived risks. Meanwhile, the perceived benefits and perceived risks could have significant effects on green disposal willingness and behaviors directly and indirectly, among which perceived benefits (0.478) had the greatest positive total effects on the willingness, and perceived risks (−0.362) had the greatest negative total effects on the behaviors. Interestingly, there existed inconsistence between farmers’ green disposal willingness and behaviors. When faced with the choice of PPWs green disposal, the farmers were generally risk averse, which resulted in them being more inclined to take conservative behaviors driven by the profit maximization, and even showed the “powerless” state with willingness but no actual action.