Perception and Behavioural Changes of Residents and Enterprises under the Plastic Bag Restricting Law

Abstract

With the severe plastic pollution issue worldwide, restrictions or bans on plastic bags have become the most popular policy intervention. As essential participants in reducing plastic consumption, residents and enterprises are vital in implementing the plastic bag restriction law (PBRL). Through a questionnaires survey of the 630 consumers and 50 enterprises, this study investigates residents’ and enterprises’ perceptions and behavioural changes toward PBRL in Macao and identifies the key influence factors. The results show that most of the respondents (95%) began to reduce the use of plastic bags after implementing the PBRL. The Internet and TV/radio were essential ways for respondents to acquire knowledge of the PBRL policy. The results of applying the binary regression model indicate that demographic characteristics (gender), plastic bags knowledge, environmental concern, and policy satisfaction were the key factors in individual consumers’ behavioural changes. For enterprises, the supermarkets have the most significant decline in sales of plastic bags. Moreover, some enterprises, especially grocery stores and supermarkets also imply that their sales are affected after implementing the PBRL. The obtained results in this study may serve as a reference for Macao and other regions to promote and improve PBRL in the future.