This study examines the effects of regulatory framework and legal system on the private action towards environmental quality among food processing firms in Sri Lanka. An Environment Regulation Responsiveness Index, reflecting compliance to solid waste management practices, was used as the measure of firms perception on environment regulation. The results highlight that compliance by the majority of firms was relatively low, especially among the small scale firms, suggesting that the decision maker on environment quality did not consider government regulation as an impotant factor to act on the environment. This calls for a critical revision and adjustments to the policy on environmental quality management both at the national and provincial level in order to promote voluntary action by firms.