Abstract: The foundation for the implementing the current policy of garbage sorting smoothly lies in the response and participation of urban residents. Based on the Normative Activation Theory, this paper studied the influence of personal norms and social norms on urban residents’ participation in garbage sorting by constructing multiple ordered Logistic model and hierarchical regression model based on the micro data of 1 156 questionnaires from 4 megacities. Results showed that the personal norm was the key variables affecting the participation of urban garbage sorting which affected by the awareness of consequence and ascription of responsibility. Meanwhile, the descriptive norm such as the atmosphere of the community and situations and the mandatory norms had positive role in the relationship between the personal norms and the urban residents’ garbage sorting by stimulating the herd behavior and psychological pressure respectively. Therefore, the countermeasure that increasing the report both about the serious consequences of garbage litter and propaganda of benign social benefits of classification, advocating that garbage classification incorporated into the residents' convention and the mode of fixed point and special person supervision to strengthen the pressure of social rules, normalizing the popularization of specific knowledge of garbage classification and creating the atmosphere of participation has been put forward to promote the residents’ participation.