Environmental regulations and internal perception are crucial in standardizing farmers’ production behaviors, promoting green agricultural practices, and alleviating rural resource and environmental constraints. This paper examines the effects of environmental regulations and internal perception on farmers’ behaviors regarding the recycling of waste agricultural films, employing Probit models based on survey data from 697 households in Xinjiang. The results show: (1) Constraint regulation has a significant positive effect on farmers’ waste mulch recycling behavior, while guiding regulation and incentive regulation are not found to promote. (2) Value orientation and transfer internalization have a mediating role between environmental regulation and farmers’ waste mulch recycling behavior, and both can positively enhance the positive effect of environmental regulation on farmers’ waste mulch recycling behavior, which is conducive to the promotion of green agricultural development. (3) From the perspective of heterogeneity, the positive effect of environmental regulations on the recycling of used mulch by farmers is more significant in the senior group, the low-education group, and the large-scale grower group. Based on these findings, the study suggests that while environmental regulation policies should continue to motivate, constrain, and guide farmers, the positive role of internal perception in promoting recycling behaviors should also be emphasized. In implementing recycling policies, a combination of top-down environmental regulations and inside-out internal perception is necessary.