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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of framing idle item recycling appeals as gains or losses on influencing consumers' idle item recycling intention by assessing the mediating role of perceived impact and the moderating role of product attachment.Design/methodology/approachIn total, three experiments were conducted to gather data. The assumed hypotheses were verified using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and bootstrap analysis.FindingsStudy 1 illustrated that loss-framed messages are more persuasive than gain-framed messages for less-involved consumers in idle item recycling, whereas message framing shows no significant difference in more-involved consumers' intention. Study 2 suggested that perceived impact tends to increase less-involved consumers' recycling intention when the message is framed as loss. Study 3 demonstrated that less-involved consumers would react to idle item recycling messages when they are strongly attached to a product. Further, gain-framed messages are more efficacious than loss-framed messages in influencing more-involved consumers' recycling intention when they are strongly attached to a product.Originality/valuePrevious research focuses on promoting waste recycling behavior initiated by local, city or national governments. This study provides some of the first evidence on the influence mechanism of message framing on consumers' idle item recycling intention and offers insights into companies to develop effective advertising strategies for idle item recycling management.