Barriers and Enablers to Buying Biodegradable ...

1. Introduction

The growing accumulation of plastic waste is a global health and sustainability threat. In , global plastics production reached nearly 360 million tons, approximately 40% of which was used in packaging applications [ 1 ]. Single-use packaging plastics have a number of health and environmental benefits within global supply chains e.g., facilitating clean drinking water and food hygiene/safety, reducing food waste, and reducing packaging weight during transportation [ 2 4 ]. However, large amounts of plastic have leeched into the natural environment with detrimental consequences. The accumulation of plastic within marine habitats results in the disruption of various ecological processes and harm to marine and aquatic species&#; health [ 5 9 ]. On land, disruptions of soil ecosystems and the risk of groundwater pollution have been identified [ 10 ]. In addition, plastic particles and fibres have been found in tap water, beer, and salt [ 11 12 ], and have accumulated within the food chain [ 13 14 ], where the health risks posed by human ingestion are not yet fully understood. As packaging represents the largest end-use market of plastic and is the dominant generator of plastic waste [ 1 15 ], interventions within the packaging industry are an avenue to reducing the amount of plastic waste generated. Biodegradable and compostable plastics are one such example. The challenge with conventional flexible and semi-flexible plastic packaging (e.g., bags, pouches, film, and tubes typically for residential use), which makes up 17% of all plastic packaging placed on the market [ 16 ], is that they are currently technically difficult to recycle, and it is not currently economically viable to do so [ 17 ]. Biodegradable and compostable plastics, particularly within flexible plastic packaging applications, represent a key opportunity for reducing the harmful health, environmental, and societal impacts of plastic waste without compromising the operations of supply chains. However, these environmental benefits are only enabled if BCPP is correctly disposed of by the end user (e.g., putting in the correct bin) and appropriately managed post-consumer (e.g., collected into the appropriate waste stream and processed in the appropriate conditions for biodegradation) [ 18 ].

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There is a growing body of technical research with respect to biodegradable and compostable plastics, including investigations into their degradation processes [ 19 20 ] and life cycle assessments [ 21 22 ]. However, research into the impact of human behaviour in relation to producing, consuming, and disposing of plastics is lacking. In particular, our knowledge regarding the influences on the purchase, use, and disposal of biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging (BCPP) is limited. There has been some research into citizens&#; knowledge, preferences, and perceptions in relation to BCPP. For instance, evidence shows that Italian citizens prefer biodegradable plastic water bottles over traditional PET plastic bottles, and are willing to pay a premium for them [ 23 ]. A UK study of perceptions towards biopolymers found that, although citizens felt positively towards biodegradable plastics, awareness of these products on the market and knowledge of what they are was low [ 24 ]. Similar results were reported by a more recent survey of Australian citizens, showing that people incorrectly dispose of biodegradable plastics [ 25 ]. These findings are supported by an experiment investigating the rate of correct disposal for biodegradable plastic water bottles vs. recyclable plastic water bottles in Germany [ 26 ]. Although German citizens reported positive attitudes towards biodegradable plastic packaging, they frequently disposed of them incorrectly, thus, undermining their environmental benefits [ 26 ]. Since these studies do not use behaviour change theory, their application in designing behaviour change interventions is limited. More comprehensive understanding of behaviour is needed to design such strategies effectively.

Plastic waste is the product of certain behaviours enacted by various key actors (e.g., citizens, producers, retailers, and policy makers) within the system of plastic (i.e., fabrication, supply, use, and waste collection/processing). Behaviour change will, therefore, be a key component of any solution. A pre-requisite for designing behaviour change interventions that are likely to be effective will be identifying the key behavioural targets that need to change in order to increase behaviours that reduce waste and decrease behaviours that lead to waste.

Citizen behaviours are a central part of the plastics system, since they include buying, using, and disposing of packaging (we use the term citizen rather than consumer, as this term only allocates an economic role as a buyer of goods, not the role of sorting and correctly disposing of packaging). It is important that BCPP is not only viable from an economic and technical perspective, but also that citizens&#; behaviours enable their environmental benefits. To design interventions that change citizen behaviours to reduce plastic packaging waste, it will be necessary to understand the influences on them. Focusing on purchasing behaviour is a useful starting point, as it is the initial behaviour in a chain of behaviours the citizen will need to enact when interacting with BCPP.

The behavioural sciences offer a range of theory- and evidence-based approaches to facilitate the process of identifying behavioural influences. One such integrated model of behaviour change is the COM-B model of behaviour (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation, and Behaviour; see Figure 1 ) [ 27 28 ]. The COM-B model posits that for a behaviour to occur, there must be capability, opportunity, and motivation to enact the behaviour. Capability refers to aptitude or ability, and can be further broken down into two sub-components: physical capability (e.g., physique and stamina) and psychological capability (e.g., memory and decision-making processes). Opportunity refers to the environmental context, and can be broken down into social opportunity (e.g., the social environment of cultures and norms) and physical opportunity (e.g., the physical environment of objects and events with which people interact). Motivation refers to the processes that initiate and guide behaviour, and can be broken down into automatic motivation, which refers to psychological processes largely out of conscious control (e.g., emotions, habits, and instincts) and reflective motivation, which refers to the conscious psychological processes that energise and direct behavior (e.g., intentions and evaluations).

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The COM-B model provides a useful framework for identifying the various individual, socio-cultural, and situational influences on a behaviour, and has previously been applied to understanding environmentally significant behaviours, e.g., food consumption [ 29 30 ], water conservation [ 31 ], and recycling [ 32 ]. However, its application within the sustainability context remains limited, particularly in understanding human citizen behaviour with respect to BCPP.

A citizen science study aimed at understanding the public&#;s views, knowledge, and behaviours relating to the use of BCPP, The Big Compost Experiment, has been conducted in the UK [ 33 ]. Details on citizen science as a research method can be found elsewhere [ 34 36 ]. The project consists of a publicly accessible website containing an online survey regarding current composting practices, BCPP purchasing behaviour, and an optional BCPP home composting experiment. In this study, we aim to understand the influences (i.e., barriers and enablers) on people&#;s purchasing of BCPP as a basis for intervention development. To this end, our research question is: what are the barriers and enablers, in terms of capability, opportunity, and motivation, to buying BCPP?

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