Community behavior and single-use plastic bottle consumption

Abstract

Since plastic is considered as environmentally hazardous material, various programs aimed at educating the community on the impact of plastics pollution and consumption have been continuously conducted. Furthermore, the relationship between culture and community behavior regarding single-use plastic bottle consumption is important to be investigated for mitigating plastics pollution. The purpose of the current research was to investigate the quantity of single-use polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-based plastic bottles are used daily and how communities are managing them in the waste stream. The data was collected from the family members of 100 households of various educational, social, economic, age, and lifestyle backgrounds. About seven local companies that work in plastic waste collection were also important participants in the data collection regarding plastics consumption. The study showed that almost 80 % of households reported one to four single-use plastic bottles consumed each day while the remaining 20 % used more than four single-use plastics bottles daily. From 88 respondents, only 10 % separated plastic bottles in their trash disposal. The result also showed that the increasing use of single-use plastic bottles are highly influenced by the behavior of the local community in plastics consumption and waste management.

Investigation on the Urban and Rural Students’ Behavior for Plastic Waste Management in Solo Region

“…Increased urban population growth is proportional to the use of plastic as a medium used in everyday life (Procházková et al, 2019). Disposable plastic material is an important part of most Indonesian people; this is because it is easy to carry, portable, strong, abundant in size and shape, inexpensive, and easy to obtain (Khoironi et al, 2019;Ledererová et al, 2019). The use of plastic as a drink bottle is a simple example that is widely used, one of which is by students who are not only students in urban or rural schools.…”

“…The basic problems in waste management in big cities are limited space, control, pollution, and social problems. Community dependence on the use of plastics, due to the durability of plastics as packaging for food and drinks, is relatively stronger than other materials (Khoironi et al, 2019;Ledererová et al, 2019;Pavani & Rajeswari, 2014). It is supported by the relatively low cost of plastic production, thus increasing the amount of the plastic output because it is in line with the amount of disposable plastic usage (Pavani & Rajeswari, 2014;Martín, 2015).…”

“…Increasing the number of plastic users from year to year has an impact on disposal and accumulation on the environment (Khoironi et al, 2019;Kong et al, 2017;Puji & Sumarno, 2019). Most plastic bottles produced end up in landfills or at sea (Van et al, 2019).…”

“…Most plastic bottles produced end up in landfills or at sea (Van et al, 2019). The food and beverage packaging industry is the dominant user of plastic products, which accounts for almost 60% of usage while building equipment and household appliances 15%, the automotive sector, 8%, with other areas also contributing to agriculture and horticulture (Khoironi et al, 2019;Ledererová et al, 2019).…”

“…Solving the problem of plastic waste by cleaning or disposing of plastic waste is not the best solution, even by burning it will only increase carbon emissions in the air (Syafrudie, 2019). One of the more effective ways to overcome the problem of plastic waste is to reduce the production and use of plastics in all aspects of human needs (Khoironi et al, 2019), especially disposable plastic waste (Martín, 2015). Plastic waste that pollutes the marine ecosystem will have an impact on marine organisms, and if humans consume seafood that exposed to plastic waste, it will hurt the human organ system (Van et al, 2019).…”