The number of students leaving their country to complete their secondary studies is increasing. And so, recycling is also an activity with steady growth. The problem we found is why international students recycle or not during their stay in other countries. To answer this, the study purpose is to find the factors that make the intentional students recycle or not to do it. Studies in relation with recycling are abundant, but there are few studies on the factors affecting the population to do it or not. Besides, existing studies highlight situational factors, such as habits and knowledge. Through the theoretical part and following the relevant methodological bases, a qualitative study was carried out through interviews with international students from different countries, in order to know their opinions and points of view regarding recycling. With the interview results, along with the information data draw from theory part, we carried out a division of the data into five major factors: Habit, knowledge, time, difficulties and personal initiative. These five groups could include all aspects that affect the behavior of international students. That is, depending on how the different factors affect the students, they will decide to recycle or not.