Building on previous literature in incentives of recycling behaviors, our research aims to compare the effect of financial and nonfinancial incentives among different consumer groups and for different recycling programs, and to explore the underlying mechanism that driving the effect. Across one field study and three lab studies, the current research show that financial incentives are more effective for less emotionally involved products and among consumers with lower levels of environmental knowledge, while nonfinancial incentives are more effective for more emotionally involved products and among consumers with higher levels of environmental knowledge. We explained the effects from the focus-processing theory. This research contributes to existing literature by investigating different influence of financial incentives and nonfinancial incentives on recycling behavior. Another novel move is to use the concept of "emotional involvement" to define recyclable items. Moreover, this study establishes the influence path from incentives to behavior focus and recycling behavior to explain the reasons for different effects of rewards under different conditions. Marketers, policy makers and NGO could benefit from the findings by implementing tailor-made rewards strategies for various targets and recycling programs.