Breaking the bag habit: Testing interventions to reduce plastic bag demand

IF 6.6 2区经济学 Q1 ECOLOGY

Ecological Economics Pub Date : 2024-11-12 DOI:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108454

Armenak Antinyan , Luca Corazzini

引用次数: 0

Abstract

In a natural field experiment conducted in a big grocery chain in Armenia, we test the impact of demand-side behavioral (an environmental nudge) and conventional (financial bonus scheme) policies to curb the purchase of single-use plastic bags. We find that both interventions are effective to reduce the demand for single-use plastic bags. Furthermore, the financial bonus scheme is more powerful than the environmental nudge. However, the financial bonus scheme backfires in the sense that it reduces the visits to the grocery chain resulting in less money spent by an average customer unlike the environmental nudge. We also study, whether customers use the reusable bags received for free and how to motivate them to do so. The findings suggest a strong correlation between reusable bag usage and shopping frequency. While many customers use the bag only once, the more frequent the shopping behavior the higher the usage of the reusable bags. Lastly, financial incentives matter for reusable bag usage.

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打破使用塑料袋的习惯：测试减少塑料袋需求的干预措施

我们在亚美尼亚的一家大型杂货连锁店开展了一项自然现场实验，检验了需求方行为（环境劝告）和传统（财务奖励计划）政策对抑制购买一次性塑料袋的影响。我们发现，这两种干预措施都能有效减少对一次性塑料袋的需求。此外，经济奖励计划比环境劝导更有效。然而，与环境劝告不同的是，经济奖励计划会适得其反，因为它减少了顾客对杂货连锁店的光顾，导致普通顾客花费更少。我们还研究了顾客是否使用免费赠送的可重复使用购物袋，以及如何激励他们这样做。研究结果表明，可重复使用购物袋的使用率与购物频率密切相关。虽然许多顾客只使用一次，但购物行为越频繁，可重复使用袋的使用率就越高。最后，经济激励对可重复使用袋的使用也很重要。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Ecological Economics 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

12.00

自引率

5.70%

发文量

313

审稿时长

6 months

期刊介绍： Ecological Economics is concerned with extending and integrating the understanding of the interfaces and interplay between "nature''s household" (ecosystems) and "humanity''s household" (the economy). Ecological economics is an interdisciplinary field defined by a set of concrete problems or challenges related to governing economic activity in a way that promotes human well-being, sustainability, and justice. The journal thus emphasizes critical work that draws on and integrates elements of ecological science, economics, and the analysis of values, behaviors, cultural practices, institutional structures, and societal dynamics. The journal is transdisciplinary in spirit and methodologically open, drawing on the insights offered by a variety of intellectual traditions, and appealing to a diverse readership. Specific research areas covered include: valuation of natural resources, sustainable agriculture and development, ecologically integrated technology, integrated ecologic-economic modelling at scales from local to regional to global, implications of thermodynamics for economics and ecology, renewable resource management and conservation, critical assessments of the basic assumptions underlying current economic and ecological paradigms and the implications of alternative assumptions, economic and ecological consequences of genetically engineered organisms, and gene pool inventory and management, alternative principles for valuing natural wealth, integrating natural resources and environmental services into national income and wealth accounts, methods of implementing efficient environmental policies, case studies of economic-ecologic conflict or harmony, etc. New issues in this area are rapidly emerging and will find a ready forum in Ecological Economics.