**5. Conclusions**

The present study examined residents' garbage sorting behavior based on a questionnaire survey, and clarified the factors that contribute to their green cooperation and other environmental morality issues in three selected regions, namely, Shanghai, Shenyang (Liaoning Province), and Chengdu (Sichuan Province). The accumulated data, which was analyzed using ordinal logit models and ordinal probit models, indicated that pro-environmental behavior arising from environmental awareness is a significant explanatory variable in promoting personal norms in HSW sorting habits and the social endorsement of refuse charge systems and policies, in line with the concept of an ecological civilization. Altruism appears to influence the receptiveness to policies only. However, both altruism and environmental awareness are preconditions for the enhancement of pro-environmental behavior and regulative environmental observance.

Overall, our findings ineluctably signal the sovereign importance of environmental and moral education in inducing and promoting personal norms in sustainable HSW managemen<sup>t</sup> and practices. This is all the more necessary because it is infeasible for a governmen<sup>t</sup> to strictly monitor daily household residents' HSW sorting behavioral practices due to the massive monitoring cost involved. That said, it is through further publicity, and environmental and moral education, that household residents can determine what must be valued in green development, and what actions must be taken to be in line with the Ecological Civilization philosophy that is rigorously promoted by the government.

Our study has far-reaching implications that the repertory of regulative control or legislative constraint alone is far from adequate to e ffectively hold society accountable for sustainable HSW managemen<sup>t</sup> practices. What is important is to inculcate a collective moral interest through various educational activities and a moral sense that can bind a society towards embracing an Ecological Civilization, as discussed above. Working incisively in tandem with regulative control, environmental and moral education can serve as an e ffective means of promoting an 'ecologically civilized' society par excellence.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, Y.H. and H.K.; methodology—formal analysis, Y.H.; writing—original draft preparation, Y.H.; supervision, H.K.; funding acquisition, H.K.; writing—review and editing, Y.C.; data curation, X.K.; validation, P.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 16K12664. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s)' organization, JSPS, or MEXT.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
