Using behavioral interventions to reduce single-use produce bags

Abstract

Plastic pollution is a major conservation challenge. Current policies have primarily focused on plastic bags but neglected produce bags which are a pervasive source of packaging in grocery stores. To reduce produce bag use, we designed and tested 12 behavioral interventions in a simulated online shopping task. Each intervention reduced produce bag use by 9.2% to 48.7% against the control condition. Among the 12, the most effective interventions included using an indirect incentive or punishment (via donations to an environmental organization), reminding people of the positive consequence of not using produce bags, using normative messaging, drawing attention to the no produce bag option, and reminding or visualizing the negative consequence of using produce bags. These interventions were more effective for liberal participants than conservatives or independents. These findings provide new evidence for effective behavioral interventions and heterogenous effects in encouraging people to reduce produce bag use to curb plastic pollution.