Public opinion about recycling
A study from 2018 which asked more than 20.000 Dutch inhabitants if they separated their waste, found out that a substantial part of the people did not do this. However, the major part of the participants (almost 80%) did consider it to be important to separate your waste. We see a mismatch between people’s attitudes and behavior here, which is often the case with conservation issues.
There are also people who don’t believe that their recycling behavior will have a beneficial impact: “It will all just end up on one big waste pile”. Others consider it to be too inconvenient or too much work. They shift the responsibility to their municipality. Almost 35% of the participants reported that they think that their municipality is too passive in making it easy to separate domestic waste.
Public opinion about plastic packaging
Studies show that consumers are willing to pay more for a product with recyclable material, which is especially high for plastic. This is probably because they view plastic as being more detrimental to the environment if it is not recycled. While people are willing to pay more for recyclable material, this does not mean that the recyclability of the package is a reason for people to buy a product. The material plays only a minor role in the preference of one product over another. Moreover, packaging preference does depend on the context and the product category. This is because of the functional advantages of plastic: it is convenient, light-weighted, transparent and resistant. As a result, plastic is still frequently used and appreciated for its practical functions and availability. While the material is perceived as environmentally unfriendly, plastic consumption is generally high.
Public opinion about possible solutions to the problem
Research focusing on the opinion of Dutch inhabitants about the possible solutions to the plastic waste problem is lacking. This is why we now include research done across the United Kingdom, which can give us some broad insights into the opinion of the public. Future research in the Netherlands will need to replicate these findings.
The large survey in the United Kingdom found that people do not agree on which solutions might be the most effective in solving the plastic waste problem. Most people think that higher taxes on retailers that use a lot of unrecyclable packing might work, followed by forcing local councils to spend more on recycling. Fewer people believe that fines for households that do not recycle enough or informational campaigns funded by the taxpayer’s money might be effective. What is important to note here, is that the solutions people believe to be effective are not the ones they would support in practice. They would for example not pay more council tax to force councils to spend more on recycling. In general, the public shifts the responsibility to other actors when considering which solutions might work the best. They are not willing to invest a lot of money or effort into achieving these solutions.