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Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China

The extensive usage of plastic bags has caused detrimental environmental damage, and an influx of research efforts have been undertaken to reduce people’s usage of plastic bags. However, studies regarding people’s reuse of plastic bags are still scarce. Therefore, this study is motivated to bridge t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Li, Yong, Wang, Bairong
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8656709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886262
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312537
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author Li, Yong
Wang, Bairong
author_facet Li, Yong
Wang, Bairong
author_sort Li, Yong
collection PubMed
description The extensive usage of plastic bags has caused detrimental environmental damage, and an influx of research efforts have been undertaken to reduce people’s usage of plastic bags. However, studies regarding people’s reuse of plastic bags are still scarce. Therefore, this study is motivated to bridge this research gap by examining the determinants of old plastic bag usage and consumers’ maximum willingness to pay price for plastic carrier bags via a semi-structured online survey on a random sample of 777 Chinese consumers. Descriptive summary, KW test, and logistic regression were used to identify potential determinants and their influence on consumers’ usage of old plastic bags. The findings indicate that consumers’ age, altruistic values, and their perceived plastic ban effectiveness are positively associated with the usage of old plastic bags. Specifically, the elder and altruistic consumers who are positive for plastic ban effectiveness are more likely to reuse old plastic bags. Furthermore, when plastic carrier bags are priced at RMB 2.0, 81.2% of the surveyed consumers say they will stop buying them. Based on the pricing setting experience from the Irish plastic bag policy, we suggest that the optimal price of plastic carrier bags is RMB 12.0, which is also six times of the consumer’s maximum willingness to pay price.
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spelling pubmed-86567092021-12-10 Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China Li, Yong Wang, Bairong Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The extensive usage of plastic bags has caused detrimental environmental damage, and an influx of research efforts have been undertaken to reduce people’s usage of plastic bags. However, studies regarding people’s reuse of plastic bags are still scarce. Therefore, this study is motivated to bridge this research gap by examining the determinants of old plastic bag usage and consumers’ maximum willingness to pay price for plastic carrier bags via a semi-structured online survey on a random sample of 777 Chinese consumers. Descriptive summary, KW test, and logistic regression were used to identify potential determinants and their influence on consumers’ usage of old plastic bags. The findings indicate that consumers’ age, altruistic values, and their perceived plastic ban effectiveness are positively associated with the usage of old plastic bags. Specifically, the elder and altruistic consumers who are positive for plastic ban effectiveness are more likely to reuse old plastic bags. Furthermore, when plastic carrier bags are priced at RMB 2.0, 81.2% of the surveyed consumers say they will stop buying them. Based on the pricing setting experience from the Irish plastic bag policy, we suggest that the optimal price of plastic carrier bags is RMB 12.0, which is also six times of the consumer’s maximum willingness to pay price. MDPI 2021-11-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8656709/ /pubmed/34886262 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312537 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Li, Yong
Wang, Bairong
Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title_full Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title_fullStr Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title_full_unstemmed Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title_short Go Green and Recycle: Analyzing the Usage of Plastic Bags for Shopping in China
title_sort go green and recycle: analyzing the usage of plastic bags for shopping in china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8656709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34886262
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182312537
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