Consumers' intention in avoiding plastic packaging from online food take-out : a case study of Beijing and Shanghai, China

Abstract

China's plastic pollution has gotten worse, especially during the COVID pandemic when the city's lockdowns boosted the food takeout business. Although the government has made efforts in curbing the use of conventional single-use plastic packaging, the problem is still looming up in the critical time of building ecological civilization. The key to resolve the overwhelming usage of disposable plastic packaging lies in reduction, along with using green alternatives: biodegradable packaging and returnable containers. The study investigated consumers' willingness to adopt new alternatives by applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB). The measurement scale, developed upon previous literature, gains validated reliability and validity after running confirmatory factory analysis (CFA) in SmartPLS. The study distributed 536 questionnaires online, targeting consumers from Beijing and Shanghai. 430 valid samples were collected and analyzed, with results showing that consumers' perceived behavior control has strong and positive effect on their willingness to pay more to using biodegradable packaging and willingness to participate in the returnable container programs. The environmental attitude, social norms and past green behavior show less direct relationships with people's adopting intentions. Their effects on the intentions are mediated by perceived behavior control disproportionately. The moderating effect is also been found between socio-economic variables and WTP&WTM. The study thus made the recommendations that the government should roll out industrial-support incentives to support the development green alternatives. Besides, promotions of alternatives should also be stressed through incorporating plastic relevant knowledge into education plan of middle schools and universities and distributing advisements on social media platforms. In addition, the young and female should be set as the targeted groups to promote the use of green alternatives as this group of people are the major consumers of online food takeout. More importantly, the study can be applied to other cities in China with the same policy and cultural backgrounds.