FACTORS INFLUENCING MILLENNIAL CONSUMERS’ INTENTION TO PARTICIPATE IN PLASTIC WASTE RECYCLING UNDER THE EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY SYSTEM

Abstract

With the continued development and rising of living standards, urbanization and the growth of population led to the rise in generation of solid waste. Plastics as the third largest municipal waste source, consumption of plastic surpassed 297.5 million by 2016. It was estimated that 55 percent of the global plastic waste was thrown away into landfills, 25 percent was incinerated and only 20 percent was recycled in 2015. Thus, the management and disposal of plastic waste has become a major concern globally. As a developing country, Sri Lanka also faces the issues regarding plastic waste management at present. About 1.6 million MT of plastic waste is generated each year, out of which 15% is composted, 10% is recycled and 75% is thrown into landfills. Recycling as one of the approaches to Extended Producer responsibility (EPR) is considered as an effective waste management strategy. Thus, the success of these initiatives could be achieved with the participation of the community or the consumers. Since the consumers’ participation in recycling is said to be low, the researcher explored the factors would motivate consumers’ participation towards plastic waste recycling. Based on this objective of the study is developed as to identify the factors influencing consumers’ intention to participate in plastic waste recycling and to investigate the relationship between predictor variables and consumers’ intention to participate in plastic waste recycling. To address the above-mentioned objective researcher has chosen millennials in Colombo District as the sample. Using the convenient sampling technique, primary data from sample of 235 respondents were collected through online questionnaire survey. Further a positivist, deductive quantitative techniques is chosen to conduct the study. The data collected were analysed using IBM SPSS statistical software to test the developed hypotheses and all five hypotheses were validated using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. The findings of the study revealed that only four hypotheses were accepted, and accordingly environmental Knowledge, behavioural control, subjective norms, and economic incentives were found to have significant influence on millennial consumers’ intention to participate in plastic waste recycling. The findings of the study have value for government/municipalities, policy makers, producers and academics who have an interest in solution- oriented study.