Households’ Willingness-to-Pay to Reduce the Use of Plastic Bags: Case Study in Viet Nam (original) (raw)
Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Plastic Bags
Sosiohumaniora
The use of plastic bags has become a habit, there is no day without a plastic bag. Seeing the importance of this problem, the government established a regulation for paying plastic bags in supermarkets in 2015, which is Rp. 200,- per sheet, and it is up to May 31, 2016. This policy did not work well and since 2016 supermarkets have returned to using plastic bags without paying for them. The aims of this study were (1) to analyze consumers’ willingness to pay more for plastic bags, (2) to analyze the cluster of consumer knowledge about plastic bags which damage the environment, (3) to analyze the most important factor that consumer will pay more for plastic bags . The study was conducted from May- June 2021 in Bandung, with simple random sampling. The results showed that generally consumers are willing to pay more for plastic bags (willingness to pay) between Rs. 500, - to Rs, 2.000, -, .Consumers who aware that plastic bags destroy the environment was 14.70 %, the medium knowledge w...
Factors influencing the reduction of plastic bag consumption in Cambodian supermarkets
Cambodia Journal of Basic and Applied Research (CJBAR), 2020
In 2017, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) introduced Sub-Decree 168 on the Management of Plastic Bags. It legislated that a 0.10 USD fee would be paid by consumers for each plastic bag they were provided at a supermarket. However, the reduction in plastic bag consumption by supermarkets has been quite limited. This paper analyses the factors that influence the reduction of plastic bag use by supermarket customers in Phnom Penh. It considers socioeconomic characteristics, access to information, existing knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as the willingness to pay a fee to use a plastic bag. A survey of 403 customers in five supermarkets was conducted to assess these factors. The study reveals that lack of available information, and poor knowledge, attitudes, and practices presented challenges for the goal of reducing plastic consumption in supermarkets. The inconvenience of a reduction in plastic bag use was found to result in negative attitudes towards the fee. Plastic bag consumption remained high at 1 to 7 bags per visit to a supermarket. Willingness-to-pay the scheduled fee was shown to have minimal influence on the number of plastic bags they used. Thus, this study recommends an increase in the fee to 0.125 USD per bag. A binary logistic regression was used to show that greater access to information, as well as changes in knowledge, attitudes, information, would have a significant influence on the reduction of plastic bag use in supermarkets.
Consumers' Willingness to Pay for Biodegradable Shopping Bags
Consumers’ Willingness to Pay for Biodegradable Shopping Bags, 2024
Plastic pollution has become a challenging issue worldwide, causing adverse impacts on the environment and ecosystem. Single-use plastic shopping bags and bottles are the main reasons behind plastic litter. These non-degradable bags create market externalities that can be internalized through different techniques. This study estimates the users' willingness to pay for biodegradable bags using the contingent valuation method. Data from 360 respondents were collected in a market survey through a designed questionnaire. Three market areas of Peshawar city were selected, which many consumers visit daily. Willingness to pay depends on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the consumers. The Tobit model with marginal analysis yields significant results. The results show that the marginal change in the willingness to pay of an individual decreases with the increase in income. The marginal Willingness to Pay remains the same for respondents of all education categories. There is a downward trend in marginal willingness to pay when the family size of the respondent increases. 38% of the respondents were not using degradable bags. 35 percent strongly agreed on an awareness campaign. The study recommends that there should be a subsidized price on each good quality biodegradable cotton bag in shopping zones.
Public Participation and Effectiveness of the no Plastic Bag Day Program in Malaysia
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015
In 2011, Malaysia introduced the No Plastic Bag Day program to discourage the use of plastic bags for carrying items purchased from shopping stores. In the country, most of them use plastic bags as carrier bags. However, their excessive use leads to a large amount of plastic waste. Plastic waste takes a long time to degrade and contributes to air, water and soil pollution. Aimed at reducing the environmental degradation from improper disposal of used plastic bags, the No Plastic Bag Day program applies a "market" instrument to discourage consumers from using plastic bags to carry items purchased. In the program, participating stores do not give out plastic bags. They charge a levy of MYR0.20 (USD0.06) for each new plastic bag requested by customers during the program. This paper reports the findings of an observatory study conducted during the middle of 2013. The study aims to identify the level of consumer participation in the program and analyze the effectiveness of the program.
BEHAVIOURAL RESPONSE TO PLASTIC BAG LEGISLATION IN BOTSWANA
2012
J o h a n e D i k g a n g a n d M a r t i n e V i s s e r Abstract This paper investigates the use of charges and standards in dealing with a common externality, plastic litter from shopping bags in Botswana. The country passed a plastic bag tax (effective 2007) to curb the plastic bag demand. Interestingly, the legislation did not force retailers to charge for plastic bags, which they did voluntarily at different prices. We assessed the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of the plastic bag legislation by analyzing consumers' sensitivity to the improvement of the plastic bag and related price charges. The introduction of the plastic bag levy led to a significant decline in the consumption of plastic bags per 1,000 Botswana pulas of shopping. The partial success of the Botswana levy was due to the constantly high prices of the bags.
Scientific reports, 2024
The study investigates residents' behavior towards reducing the use of single-use plastic (SUP), specifically in the context of food packaging. The widespread view holds that pro-environmental behavior (PB) results from a person's moral and rational deliberations. In reducing single-use plastic (SUP) consumption and waste, the relative roles of rationality and morality models in validating PB among rural and urban residents are not yet clear. In this empirical study, we compared the relative efficacy of two models for explaining people's SUP reduction behavior: the theory of planned behavior (TPB; rationality) and the value belief norm (VBN; morality). We investigated Thailand's rural (Sichang Island) and metropolitan (Nonthaburi city) areas. As a result, we surveyed people living on Sichang Island (n = 255) and in Nonthaburi city (n = 310). We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) for data analysis in this study. Findings showed that while morality better justified all the study participants' SUP reduction behavior, rationality underpinned behaviors of rural residents, while morality better explained the actions of city residents. We discussed future theoretical development and a policy roadmap based on these findings. The food industry is the largest user of single-use plastics (SUP), accounting for up to 35% of global packaging production 1. Almost 95% of food packaging is discarded after a single use 2. SUP food packaging production, consumption, and management pose several environmental risks. A growing body of research focuses on the effects of plastics in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial environments 3-5. SUP debris in the environment can degrade into smaller pieces known as microplastics (sizes less than 5 mm) and nanoplastics (1-100 nm) 6 , which can have various effects on wildlife and the health of coastal communities. Currently, plastic waste is considered a critical environmental issue in Thailand, with the country grappling with an ever-increasing volume of SUP waste 7. Thailand leads the Asian Pacific region in annual plastic consumption per capita, with 40 kg 8. Every day, Bangkok alone produces 1800 metric tons of SUPs 9. In Thailand, there has yet to be a significant impact on reducing plastic use. According to some estimates, about 12% of Thailand's total municipal solid waste (MSW) is plastic 10. SUPs waste accounts for a considerable portion of municipal solid waste (MSW). This proportion is rising due to lifestyle changes and is expected to increase further as MSW volumes have increased by about 10% per year 11. According to a study 12 , urban residents have better plastic waste disposal habits than rural residents. The rural community's custom of using plastic bags when shopping at accessible neighboring stalls exacerbates this. In many cities, particularly in developing countries, the waste management system designed by the government and private sector cannot overcome the number of existing landfills 13. This prompted calls for a reduction
International journal of environmental impacts, 2024
This research aims to analyze the characteristics of consumer behavior regarding the use of shopping bags and the factors that influence it based on an environmental approach. The method in this research is based on ten (10) factors from the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) model to understand the behavior of carrying shopping bags instead of using plastic bags based on ten (10) variables namely; 1) Attitude (AT); 2) Subjective Norms (SN); 3) Perceived Behavioral Control (PBC); 4) Environmental Concern (EC); 5) Personal Norms (PN); 6) Response Efficacy (RE); 7) Self-efficacy (SE); 8) Behavioral Intention (BI); 9) Anti-Plastic Bag Behavior (APB); and 10) Behavioral Willingness (BW). The results show a significant relationship between trustworthy AT, SN, PBC, EC, PN, and SE. This is evident from the significance value (sig) which is less than 0.05, indicating a fairly high level of confidence. Overall, the results of the research provide a better understanding of the factors that influence consumer decisions in carrying shopping bags, especially among BI consumers. The implications of these findings can be used as a basis for developing more effective strategies for promoting more eco-friendly and sustainable behavior in the future.
Replacing single use plastic bags with compostable carriers: socio-economic approach
IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 2019
Disposable plastic bags have already become global environmental problems due to their long durability. Plastic bags can be decomposed into microplastic and become more harmful to the environment. This paper will describe socio-economic factors that determinate plastic bag consumption and willingness to pay (WTP) for compostable shopping bags in Yogyakarta. Respondents were chosen using simple random sampling adopting Slovin formula. At a critical value of 4,82%, the sample size was 450 households. Socio-economic factors affecting the use of plastic bags are tested by employing multiple regressions. The result showed that the average use of plastic bags in Yogyakarta is 8 bags/household/week. Factors that influence the usage of plastic bags were the intensity of shopping in the supermarkets/grocery/convenience store, monthly shopping expenditure, and the intensity of the use of non-degradable plastic bags. WTP for compostable shopping bags is IDR 615 per bag. Since the traditional m...
Government Efforts in Managing Plastic Bags
Public Administration Issues
Despite awareness of the importance of sustaining the environment plus regulations to deter the use of plastic bags when shopping, ceasing to use plastic bags is a behavior that does not come easily to Indonesian consumers. Our survey shows that government regulations alone do not have a direct eff ect in lessening the use of plastic bags. However, it turns out that guidance through the presence of eco-friendly awareness could be used by the government as a basis to manage consumer behavior in the market. Given this, the Indonesian government would be able to make better policies related to the use of plastic bags in Indonesia, for example, to create a policy where a percentage of goods sold have to be in the form of green products. Indonesian customers tend to reduce their plastic bag usage or purchase green products as a reaction to eco-friendly awareness. Th is study comes up with a law-like generalization model with regarding to the relationship among variables: government regulations, eco-friendly awareness, the intention to continue using plastic bags, and the intention to purchase green products. Th is study reveals that the government managing consumer behavior solely through campaigning on eco-friendly matters is not suffi cient. Th ey should emphasize more on providing good quality green products in addition to raising community awareness of environmental sustainability, since this research has found that green products are an alternative to using plastic bags.
Sustainability
With the severe plastic pollution issue worldwide, restrictions or bans on plastic bags have become the most popular policy intervention. As essential participants in reducing plastic consumption, residents and enterprises are vital in implementing the plastic bag restriction law (PBRL). Through a questionnaires survey of the 630 consumers and 50 enterprises, this study investigates residents’ and enterprises’ perceptions and behavioural changes toward PBRL in Macao and identifies the key influence factors. The results show that most of the respondents (95%) began to reduce the use of plastic bags after implementing the PBRL. The Internet and TV/radio were essential ways for respondents to acquire knowledge of the PBRL policy. The results of applying the binary regression model indicate that demographic characteristics (gender), plastic bags knowledge, environmental concern, and policy satisfaction were the key factors in individual consumers’ behavioural changes. For enterprises, t...