Exploring Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Regarding Single-Use Plastics in Lahore Workspaces

Abstract

Plastics are solid, low-price and have become a vital part of our daily life. The plastic industry is growing continuously over the decades to satisfy the needs of growing population. About 40% of the plastics produced worldwide are single use plastic and their disposal is a significant hazard to the human health and environment. The current study focuses on the knowledge, attitude and practices of people towards plastic usage at different workplaces in Lahore. To investigate behavior and perception of plastic consumption an online survey was conducted from March to August 2021. Results suggested that people have good knowledge about the impacts of plastic on public as well as environmental health 90% of respondents knew plastic takes thousands of years to degrade, 91.5% of them knew plastic is hazardous for environment, they (87.8 %) agreed that plastic threatens aquatic life but they usually don’t practice it and show negligent attitude towards the use of plastic and its products. Like 54.8 % respondents use plastic bag to carry their lunch box and 32.5 % of them take tea/coffee in disposable plastic cup at their workplace. Similarly, 86.3 % people knew that heating plastic lunch box in microwave oven makes food cancerous but still majority (36.8 %) of them directly microwave their plastic lunch box. Hence, combination of sound policies and awareness may help to address the major environmental problem and may also help to reduce environmental pressure posed due to plastic pollution.