Eco-friendly masks preferences during COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia

Abstract

Eco-friendly face mask is necessity to reduce the aggravates the environment due to increased face masks waste during COVID-19 pandemic. The successful eco-friendly masks development influenced by understanding of user’s need and effectiveness of communications. The employed conjoint analysis obtained user mask preferences information to support effective communication strategies by business enterprises and policy makers on encouraging public to consume appropriate masks. The attribute importance followed from eco-friendly (32.1%), mask certification (26.5%), filtration efficiency (19.8%), price (13.9%), layers (5.6%), type of mask (1.5%), material (0.7%). The public expecting the mask with the ability to recycled and biodegradable, with certification, performance above 90% filtration efficiency, and affordable prices in the range of Rp.1.500-Rp.25.000. Also, 3-ply fabrics for the medical type and cotton material are generally preferred to polyester/polypropylene. The government needs to improve the effectiveness masks education, provide convenience process to masks certification by manufacturers, and provision of incentives to reduce masks production cost. Meanwhile, manufacturers ensure produce of the standard eco-friendly masks in affordable pricing. Furthermore, gender did not show significant effect on preferences, but varied with average expenditure.

Role of Eco-Friendly Products in the Revival of Developing Countries’ Economies and Achieving a Sustainable Green Economy

“…The study contributes to the available literature substantially. It provides further explanations for studies conducted in developed countries (Barbarossa & De Pelsmacker, 2016;Armenio et al, 2022;Koch et al, 2022) and developing countries (Chi, 2022;Hartanto & Triastianti, 2022). We have tried to fill the research gap by illuminating the influential factors behind eco-friendly product use in developing countries.…”

“…A recent study in Vietnam measured the consumer's concerns and ethical behaviour toward plastic products (Chi, 2022) but ignored eco-friendly products. The same is the case with Eco-friendly mask preferences in Indonesia (Hartanto & Triastianti, 2022) and consumer preference for buying cheaper versus eco-friendly cars (Armenio, Bergantino, Intini, & Morone, 2022). Apart from this, non of the studies has exclusively measured the behavioural intention of male and female consumers to provide a genderspecific solution to the low sale of eco-friendly products and encourage both segments of society to consume eco-friendly products.…”

Investigation of Social Opinion on Green Lifestyle, Eco-Friendly Buildings and Saving of Resources. Empirical Research

“…Studies have found that market alignment is very important since adding the target benefits and values to specific customers is more effective during product design (Fleith de Medeiros et al, 2022). The results show that the criteria of goodness-of-fit fulfil the requirements with regard to values representing eco-friendliness (biodegradable, recycled, certified), efficiency, price, and material (Hartanto & Triastianti, 2022).…”

Tourism and Emerging Infectious Diseases: More Connections Than First Meet the Eye

“…Measures include the provision of hand sanitizer, regular disinfection of all high-touch areas, the provision of masks along with encouraging guests to wear them when they feel unwell as well as requiring staff to stay home when they feel unwell (WHO 2022a). To limit the environmental harm of these measures—such as increased waste from masks—tourism businesses can provide environmentally sustainable masks which are preferred by consumers (Hartanto and Triastianti 2021). Hotels could also ask guests to leave their reusable masks in their rooms when checking out.…”