Consumer-driven evaluation of Ecoplas as a sustainable flexible packaging in Jakarta

Abstract

400 million tons of plastic waste pollute the environment every year, and then 8 million tons of plastic waste have ended up in the ocean. Flexible plastic waste accounts for 76% of plastic waste entering the environment in Indonesia. Ecoplas have been developed in Jakarta, as starch-based biodegradable packaging. This study aims to 1) determine the ranking of Ecoplas compared to PP, r-PP, and Oxo-biodegradable; 2) Identify criteria that affect the path of Ecoplas packaging into sustainable packaging. Data collection was conducted through a questionnaire involving 96 consumers of flexible packaging in Jakarta, taken by convenience sampling. In this study, Ecoplas packaging was evaluated using PROMETHEE II to generate rankings, and Rainbow-PROMETHEE to review criteria affecting packaging sustainability. The results show that PP packaging (0.1168) remains the most preferred option for flexible packaging, followed by Oxo-biodegradable (0,0020), Ecoplas (-0,0113), and r-PP (-0,1076). Ecoplas have good criteria on willingness to purchase (Ec), consumers' environmental preferences (En), property preference (T1), packaging safety preference (T3), and consumer knowledge of post-consumer (S2). Aspects of criteria that need to be improved by Ecoplas i.e. awareness of alternative packaging usage (S1) and accessibility (S3 & S4), and packaging durability preference (S2). Ecoplas is promising to be an alternative to flexible packaging, as shown by the good evaluation and willingness of consumers to purchase it as eco-friendly packaging. However, Ecoplas packaging needs to improve the level of packaging properties and accessibility level for consumers to find it easily.