Proactive Technology-Mediated Informal Learning in Community Environmental Education: A STOPS Analysis of Housewives’ Engagement in Urban Zero Waste Practices

Urban waste management remains a persistent environmental challenge, with household practices playing a pivotal role in shaping sustainability outcomes. In urban communities, housewives occupy a strategic position in household waste reduction; however, the learning processes through which environmental engagement emerges in everyday life remain insufficiently theorized. This study examines how situational perceptions influence household environmental engagement in zero-waste practices through proactive informal environmental learning (PIEL), drawing on the Situational Theory of Problem Solving (STOPS) and an infrastructure-oriented view of technology-mediated learning. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional survey of 1,668 urban housewives engaged in community-based zero-waste activities, the study applies regression-based mediation and moderated mediation analyses with Hayes’ PROCESS macro. The findings indicate that situational perceptions shape environmental engagement primarily through a serial mechanism involving situational motivation and proactive informal learning, rather than through direct effects alone. Moreover, digital technology use strengthens the translation of situational perceptions into informal learning but does not moderate the subsequent relationship between learning and engagement. These results position informal, practice-based learning as a central mechanism in community environmental education and conceptualize digital technology as an enabling infrastructure for learning initiation, rather than a direct driver of behavioral outcomes. Overall, the study advances a context-sensitive, learner-centered framework for understanding environmental engagement in urban community settings.