Factors influencing the reduction of plastic bag consumption in Cambodian supermarkets

Abstract

In 2017, the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) introduced Sub- Decree 168 on the Management of Plastic Bags. It legislated that a 0.10 USD fee would be paid by consumers for each plastic bag they were provided at a supermarket. However, the reduction in plastic bag consumption by supermarkets has been quite limited. This paper analyses the factors that influence the reduction of plastic bag use by supermarket customers in Phnom Penh. It considers socioeconomic characteristics, access to information, existing knowledge, attitudes, and practices, as well as the willingness to pay a fee to use a plastic bag. A survey of 403 customers in five supermarkets was conducted to assess these factors. The study reveals that lack of available information, and poor knowledge, attitudes, and practices presented challenges for the goal of reducing plastic consumption in supermarkets. The inconvenience of a reduction in plastic bag use was found to result in negative attitudes towards the fee. Plastic bag consumption remained high at 1 to 7 bags per visit to a supermarket. Willingness-to-pay the scheduled fee was shown to have minimal influence on the number of plastic bags they used. Thus, this study recommends an increase in the fee to 0.125 USD per bag. A binary logistic regression was used to show that greater access to information, as well as changes in knowledge, attitudes, information, would have a significant influence on the reduction of plastic bag use in supermarkets.