Analysis of consumer preferences and attitudes towards sustainable consumption of plastic beverage packaging in Malaysia

One of the challenges towards promoting plastic packaging sustainability in Malaysia is the lack of awareness on plastic consumption among consumers and the absence of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. Consumers play a significant role in contributing towards better management of plastic packaging. Using plastic beverage packaging as an example, a survey was carried out on consumer willingness to participate in an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) system and pay for a more sustainable packaging option. Some open-ended questions were also applied to implore on factors that would encourage consumer participation in sustainable plastic packaging management. A majority of the respondents gave positive responses towards their willingness to participate and willingness to pay for a more environmentally friendly plastic packaging options. The results also showed that the respondents will be more encouraged to participate if it is convenient for them to do so, but also raised the need for a better management system, infrastructure, mindset, awareness and education to be in place. The results provided valuable insights to both policy makers and the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector in determining the way forward for solid waste management in general and plastic packaging policy and management in particular.


Introduction
Plastic is commonly used in most consumer goods due to its practicality, durability and protective properties.With the rise of consumerism, between 1950s to 2015, 8,300 million tonnes of virgin plastics were estimated to be produced, with 6,300 million tonnes of plastic waste being generated but only about 21% were incinerated or recycled and the remaining 79% were disposed into landfills or remained in the natural environment (Geyer et al., 2017).Food and beverages (F&B) are part of the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry and a major producer and user of single-use packaging as it is not only convenient but can also extend shelf life and guarantee food safety.Plastic packaging often has a short lifespan and discarded carelessly by consumers once it has served its purpose, making them prone to ending up in common waste streams, water bodies and the marine environment.This high demand on plastic packaging makes it the largest share of plastic waste generation at almost 50% of the total weight of the global waste composition (World Bank, 2018), contributing towards the increase of environmental problems around the world.
Many countries in Southeast Asia are struggling to manage plastic packaging waste especially singleuse plastic packaging such as plastic shopping bags and plastic beverage bottles.According to Laville and Taylor (2017), a million plastic bottles are purchased every minute and once consumed and thrown away, they become one of the most common items found in landfills and waterways.Malaysia has one of the highest plastic packaging consumption per capita in Southeast Asia at 16.78kg/person (WWF, 2021) with the total consumption of household plastic packaging estimated to be at about 523,000 metric tonnes (World Bank, 2021).Due to limited resources and capacity especially in waste collection and waste treatment systems, managing plastic packaging waste becomes a challenge to federal and local authorities.Aside from limited resources and capacity, the underlying challenges in tackling plastic pollution in this region are the limited awareness of both consumers and businesses on this matter, coupled with lack of knowledge and understanding on high impact intervention points to encourage positive actions among consumers and businesses (UNEP, 2020).This has prompted governments and businesses to raise the awareness and involvement of consumers on plastic-related issues as they are one of the key stakeholders in implementing a sustainable plastic economy (UNEP, 2018).
When it comes to plastic, there is a need to focus on human behaviour using a multidisciplinary approach.In a study carried out by Heidbreder et al. (2017), plastics management is often determined by social factors, context factors, convenience and habits.Based on these parameters, we carried out a survey to investigate factors that can encourage consumer participation in sustainable plastic packaging management through their choices, preferences and willingness to pay for plastic bottle packaging and its alternatives under a potential Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme in Malaysia.Apart from being one of the most energy-intensive industry, plastic packaging from the beverage industry was chosen as the focus due to the evolving consumer demand, behaviour and preferences on beverages.There is also a lack of research on product-specific packaging in Malaysia that focuses on plastic packaging of beverages and willingness to pay for a more environmental-friendly plastic packaging.Thus, this study aspires to contribute to that body of knowledge.This is an exploratory study, using a mixed method design with closed and open-ended question survey regarding willingness to participate and pay in a sustainable plastic packaging management, under the proposal of EPR implementation in Malaysia.This study contributes to the existing literature on this subject and was designed as part of a larger ongoing research on development of an EPR governance framework for plastic packaging in Malaysia's beverage sector, where multiple stakeholders such as government agencies, industry players and consumers were also engaged for inputs towards developing an EPR framework that is practical and implementable.

Literature reviews
The packaging value chain often involves multiple stakeholders from resource extraction, design and production of packaging, retail and consumption to waste collection, sorting, recycling (GIZ, 2018b) and finally disposed to landfills.Without an EPR system in place, solid waste and post-consumer packaging waste is often under the purview of local governments and waste operators.However, Malaysia is slightly unique in the sense that in some states, solid waste management is under the purview of the federal government under the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (MHLG, 2007) and the federal government has privatised solid waste collection to three main contractors in the seven states respectively.With regulations in place and better financial capacity compared to municipalities, the coverage and frequency of waste collection in these states have improved tremendously.On the other hand, the same cannot be said to the other states and municipalities which are not under the federalisation process, thus it created different levels of quality in solid waste management throughout Malaysia.Nevertheless, the increase of solid waste generation has prompted the government to focus on plastic waste and packaging under the Roadmap Towards Zero Single Use Plastics 2018 -2030 (MESTECC, 2018) and Malaysia Plastics Sustainability Roadmap 2021 -2030 (KASA, 2021).Apart from the absence of EPR, tackling consumer awareness is a critical step as without the involvement of consumers, it will be challenging to push forward the agenda of sustainability and circularity of plastics.Having said that, the mandatory implementation of EPR will be implemented in Malaysia voluntarily starting from 2023 and mandatorily by the year 2026.
Nonetheless, the implementation of these measures will take some time to be in effect as multiple issues needs to be addressed beforehand such as legislations, institutional, infrastructures, financial, technology, human capital and other related issues.Hence, the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industry players in Malaysia have voluntarily set up an EPR group of companies known as Malaysian Recycling Alliance (MAREA) to spearhead this initiative to boost the existing value chain of postconsumer packaging.MAREA was developed to play the role of a single Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) that operates as an industry-owned enterprise with Board of Directors representing the member groups.They provide strategic direction and the necessary funding for MAREA act effectively in enhancing collection and recycling activities, promoting the use of recycled content in their product packaging, carry out consumer education and collaborate with government agencies (MAREA, 2022).Membership of MAREA is open for producers and players in the FMCG industry, however, at the moment, only a handful of FMCG players are a part of this organisation and no representatives from the small-medium enterprises (SMEs).
To define further on EPR, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), EPR can be defined as an environmental policy approach in which the producer's responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product's life cycle (2001).In general, EPR policies aim to promote waste prevention and reduction, increase resource efficiency and the usage of recycled materials.Having said that, there is no one-size-fits-all implementation of EPR as it varies according to the legislations and institutional set-ups of each country and municipalities.According to Kaffine and O'Reilly (2015), almost 400 EPR policies have been implemented around the world with more than 30 countries implementing EPR specifically for plastic packaging (Watkins et al 2017; WWF, 2020).Many countries have chosen to include EPR as one of its approaches in managing plastic packaging waste due to its variability and flexibility in adapting to local values, legislations and economic environment.The direct and indirect impacts of EPR have been extensively discussed by many scholars, with mostly positive outcomes (OECD, 2016), therefore it will not be discussed further in this paper.

EPR stakeholders and their roles
The plastic packaging industry has a complex ecosystem and involves many stakeholders.To implement an EPR system for plastic packaging, we look into the principles of EPR and the role of its stakeholders as illustrated in Figure 1 and Table 1.However, this study will only focus on the consumers' roles.Table 1.EPR stakeholders and their roles (adapted from GIZ, 2018).

Roles Manufacturers
No obligation to pay EPR fees but encouraged to use secondary raw materials, adopt 3R and avoid hazardous substances.Fillers and importers Need to pay EPR fees.Encouraged to establish a PRO and promote 3R.Distributors/retailers No obligation to pay EPR fees but can be obliged to take back packaging and ensure proper management and disposal.

Consumers
No obligation to pay EPR fees but usually required to pay for its cost via purchase of products.Consumers should be informed and educated on waste reduction strategies and proper return and disposal of their packaging waste.

Waste management service providers
Receive funds from the EPR system for their services to ensure packaging waste collection and recycling/energy recovery/ landfilling.Government organisations Establish necessary legislations and supervision/enforcement of the EPR system.

Environmental awareness and consumer behaviour
In general, consumers do not consume with the intention of harming the environment, but rather, consumption produces negative environmental impacts as the unintended consequences of consumers' pursuit in achieving individual well-being.Other than meeting basic needs, people also consume to fulfill social functions, satisfy personal preferences, influenced by advertising/marketing or they simply do not have a choice (UNEP, 2016).The motivations, determinants and drivers of consumer consumption behaviors are mainly influenced by these 10 factors namely income levels, values, abilities, awareness, social norms and peers, media, market prices, technology, infrastructure and policies and institutional frameworks.
In recent years, consumers are becoming more aware of their consumption impacts on the environment and are slowly changing towards sustainable consumption.This is evident in the latest global study done by IBM where 62% of consumers across the income levels and age groups were willing to change their purchasing habits in order to reduce their ecological impacts and 49% were already paying a premium for sustainable products (IBM, 2022).This helps to draw some focus on sustainable behaviours, products and packaging.However, the same study has also revealed that despite their willingness to pay, less than a third of the consumers actually purchased sustainable or environmentally responsible products.Under this study, price and quality of goods are the two top determining factors in influencing consumers from buying sustainable goods.This attitude-behaviour gap needs to be identified and overcome for sustainability policies and strategies to be implemented effectively.Therefore, this provide some evidence that there is a need to further investigate this aspect of consumer behaviour in Malaysia on sustainable plastic packaging management, especially on their willingness to accept and carry out their responsibility including the financial implications that will occur.A deeper insight and understanding of Malaysian consumers' consumption patterns and behaviour is imperative in order to encourage and implement effective policies, particularly in mitigating issues regarding plastic packaging.While changes in legislations, infrastructures and other governancerelated issues will take some time to be resolved in order for new policies such as EPR to work, collective behavioural shifts among consumers may be carried out earlier.However, this should be assisted in a way that makes it easy for the consumers to shift.

Convenience
Consumers have the capacity to change to a more pro-environmental behaviours and yet, there are also instances where positive environmental attitude does not lead towards taking green actions.For example, some felt that post-consumer recycling is tedious and time consuming, and the need to clean a package before recycling hinders people from participating in the act of recycling (Klaiman et al, 2017).Guagnano et al. (1995) who introduced Attitude-Behaviour-Context (ABC) model found that green behaviour does not only determined by attitude, but also contextual factors where external conditions can alter the attitudes of consumers.For example, houses that are provided with recycle bins tend to recycle more than houses that do not have these bins.In this case, to implement sustainable plastic packaging and EPR, this factor must be taken into consideration.Verplanken (2017) have highlighted that consumers face structural challenges to participate in sustainable behaviour thus, under supportive conditions such as providing ample information and recycling bins within close proximity of residential areas, even consumers with less environmental attitude can behave in a sustainable manner and start recycling.Whereas, under restrictive conditions such as insufficient information and facilities, will discourage even the most pro-environmental consumers.The second model by Olander and Thøgersen (1995) supported this with their Motivation-Ability-Opportunity (MAO) model using ability and opportunity as pre-requisites to green consumer behaviour.These constructs encompass habit, knowledge and facilitating conditions as opportunities to perform the behaviour.Thus, consumers' green behaviour can be practiced and inculcated if they have the ability and opportunity to carry it out, while at the same time does not cause inconvenience to them.Various interventions can be applied to break and encourage repetition such as penalties, incentives and feedbacks (White et al, 2019).If the steps become inconvenient for the consumers, the lower the rate of participation will be and this contributes towards the low recovery rate of recyclables down the road (Wagner, 2012).

Willingness to pay
When it comes to packaging, consumers' choices are often formed from an economic point of view and price-sensitive.Birgelen et al (2009) found that consumers contemplate on prices and taste first before looking at a beverage product with eco-friendly packaging.This was supported by the IBM study (2022) where consumers look to price and quality first before buying eco-friendly products.Birgelen et al (2009) also mentioned that product brand and package design are elements that consumers are willing to sacrifice when choosing eco-friendly packaging.This shows consumer willingness to also change brands as long as price and taste remains unaffected.On another note, a majority of consumers were willing to pay premium prices for environmental reasons and products (Bougherara and Combris, 2009) (Orset et al, 2017).However, the opposite happened in Japan where there was low willingness to pay for shampoo with less packaging among Japanese consumers and they find refilling bottles were a hassle (Yamaguchi and Takeuchi, 2016).
In summary, for sustainable plastic packaging and EPR to be implemented, these consumer-related factors should be taken into consideration in designing policies, institutional frameworks, programmes and infrastructures.

Methodology
The 62 questions survey was carried out via online platform using Google Form between September 2021 -March 2022 and was disseminated online via social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp in both English and Bahasa Melayu using random sampling and snowball sampling to reach a wider audience.The survey targeted consumers living in the Greater Klang Valley area that makes up 24% of Malaysia's population (DOSM, 2022) and was answered by 395 respondents living in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, achieving the confidence level of >95%.The questionnaire was conveyed using dichotomous questions and Likert scale of 1 -5 with 1 being least important and 5 being most important.Dichotomous questions and 5-point Likert scale were used to obtain short answers and to also simplify the survey experience.It was also easy to analyse as the questionnaire will be used to supplement and support the main qualitative data from interviews with other related stakeholders.
In addition, open-ended questions were also used to gather a more in-depth information.The questionnaire assessed respondents' environmental literacy, preand post-consumer behaviour towards plastic beverage packaging and willingness to pay.For this paper, only some of the results will be discussed.The result was analysed using descriptive and simple statistical analysis as this is suitable to identify consumers' preference and behaviour, expectations, willingness to participate and pay for EPR.Thematic analysis was used to analyse the open-ended answers and the answers were then classified according to common themes.

Demographic background
General demographic data were compiled from the respondents such as age, location, academic background and average household income.65.3% of the respondents are female and 34.7% are male.78% of the respondents were between the age of 31 -50 years old.Among the respondents, 89.1% have gone through tertiary education and about 40.5% of the respondents have household income of RM10,000.In terms of distribution, about 50% of the respondents are living in Selangor followed by 20.5% living in Kuala Lumpur.It is estimated that at least 9 million people currently resides in the Greater Klang Valley area which consist of the states of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and some parts of Negeri Sembilan (DOSM, 2022).Table 2 presents the summary of the respondents' demographic background.Our sample consist of a majority of working women in their middle-age who are well-educated, within the middle to high income bracket and has strong purchasing power.Based on this background, it is also assumed that the overall sample is made up of respondents who has good environmental awareness.

Environmental awareness and consumer behaviour
With regards to environmental awareness and consumer behaviour, Table 3 showed that the respondents are familiar with sustainable plastic packaging management such as reduce, reuse and recycle.This is evident when most of the questions received more than 95%.This confirmed the initial assumption that the respondents have high environmental awareness when almost 72% separate their waste and more than 50% of the respondents handled their plastic packaging waste by washing, cleaning and separating them before disposing or recycling them.This indicated that half of the respondents have already practice sustainable plastic packaging management for future EPR implementation.For the rest of the respondents, continuous education and awareness is necessary to instil these habits in managing plastic packaging especially for their beverages.

Importance of packaging
Using a Likert scale between 1 -5, the respondents were asked to give their preference on packaging in Table 4.When deciding on the importance of packaging to consumers, 77.7% of the respondents answer between Important to Extremely important.44.3% of the respondents mentioned that packaging recyclability is an extremely important consideration for them when buying beverages in plastic packaging.Labelling and price are almost equally as extremely important as well at 49.1% and 47.7% respectively, supporting the findings of Birgelen et al (2009) and IBM (2022).

Willingness to participate and pay
In Table 5, the respondents were asked about their willingness to pay and willingness to participate in sustainable plastic packaging management.They were first asked if they were willing to pay more for a more sustainable and environmentally friendly packaging and less than 60% are willing to do so.However, 87.6% were willing to pay a minimal deposit fee for drinks in bottles.If a deposit refund system (DRS) is implemented, 86.6% of the respondents will make the effort to clean and segregate their plastic bottles before returning and claiming their deposit.95.9% mentioned they will make the effort to return them for their deposit.92.9% of the respondents mentioned that they will be encouraged to return the plastic bottles if the deposit amount is stated on the packaging label.At the same price, 81.8% claimed that they will consider switching to brands that uses more environmental-friendly packaging materials.But if the price is more expensive, only 62.5% will consider switching brands.On another note, 74.4% of the respondents will consider buying drinks without packaging, such as using their own bottles to fill their beverages at a vending machine.This shows a positive response from consumers on their interest in refillable beverages and can be considered for implementation.Table 5. Results on willingness to participate and pay.

Willingness to pay
Yes No 40.Are you willing to pay a higher price for your bottled drinks if a more sustainable and environmental-friendly plastic bottle is used?57.2% 42.8% 41.Are you willing to pay a minimal deposit fee (that you will get back) for drinks in plastic bottles?87.6% 12.4% 44.If Malaysia implement a DRS system for drinks in plastic bottles, will you make the effort to clean and segregate the plastic bottles for recycling before claiming your deposit?86.6% 13.4% 45.If Malaysia implement a DRS system for drinks in plastic bottles, will you make the effort to return the plastic bottles for your deposit?95.9% 4.1% 49.Will packaging label that states the deposit amount encourage you to return the plastic bottle to a collection point?92.9% 7.1% 57.Will you consider switching from your favourite beverage brand to another brand that uses more environmental-friendly packaging materials with the same price?81.8% 18.2% 58.Will you consider switching from your favourite beverage brand to another brand that uses more environmental-friendly packaging materials, even though they are slightly more expensive?62.5% 37.5% 61.Will you consider buying drinks without packaging?For example, bringing your own bottle to fill your beverage at a vending machine.74.4% 25.6%

Encouragement to return plastic packaging
When asked about the implementation of DRS and what would encourage them return their plastic bottles, they were allowed to select more than one answer from the list of responses.Table 6 shows the highest choice of reason to encourage them to return their plastic packaging is the convenience of the return/refund system at 81.8%, followed by proximity of collection point 73.9% and to save the environment at 73.7%.From the results, it can be assumed that financial motivation is not a priority for these consumers.

Preference on location to return plastic packaging
The respondents were also asked on their preference of location to return these plastic packaging and Table 7 shows that the respondents would prefer to return it at a place that they frequent often such as supermarkets/mini markets (72.7%), petrol stations (70.9%) and convenience stores (61.3%).Surprisingly, a majority of the respondents also would like to return them via vending machines at 71.6%.Similar to refilling beverages at vending machines, consumers also find that returning via vending machine is convenient for them.Currently, these vending machines are a rare sight even in big cities and urban areas.However, the government and brand owners can contemplate on providing more vending machines near residential or commercial areas to accommodate this demand.

Deposit Refund System (DRS) implementation
Apart from the above questions, the respondents were given a brief description on DRS and were asked about the suitability of DRS being implemented in Malaysia for plastic packaging to manage plastic waste better.81% of the respondents agree for it to be implemented.However, some were against it and raised concerns on its suitability.
Based on the open-ended question, some of the main concerns were the mindset and awareness of Malaysians regarding the system (23.68%),followed by effectiveness of implementation and lack of infrastructure (14.47% respectively).

Discussion
The findings of this survey have shed some light on Malaysian consumers' preferences and attitudes regarding their consumption of plastic beverage packaging.Firstly, we would like to highlight the special characteristics of the results and discussions taken into consideration in light of this feature.The sample is mainly made of women in the middle-aged category between the ages of 31 to 50, welleducated with almost 90% are university graduates and on average earns about RM10,000 (USD 2,160) and above monthly.Therefore, it can be assumed that the sample represents a group that has access to knowledge on sustainable consumption and has the financial capacity to support sustainable packaging, DRS and willingness to pay practice in the future if it is implemented.Since the demographic is made of highly educated respondents in the middle to high income bracket, the results might not be representative of the population of Malaysia.Therefore, we suggest the survey to be carried out nationwide to ensure better representation of Malaysian consumers with various backgrounds.
Secondly, in the literature review, we have discussed consumer preferences and attitudes regarding their pro-environmental behaviour in the context of sustainable plastic packaging management.Thus, we would like to discuss the key takeaways and future strategies that can be adopted by the stakeholders involved namely the government, private sector and the consumer themselves.
From the study, we can conclude that high awareness of plastic packaging problems does not translate into consumers taking pro-environmental actions and making sustainable choices.This can be due to the reluctance in changing habits, lack of knowledge on how to implement or the absence of convenience to do so.Therefore, to mitigate these issues, a behaviour-based approach is needed (Heidbreder et al, 2019).This is also supported by the recent insights from UNEP study (2020) on Malaysian consumers.Since consumers are at the post-consumption stage of a product, more information and guidelines on how to handle their plastic packaging must be disseminated widely to encourage knowledge adoption.Having said that, awareness and knowledge might not push behaviour change in consumers, therefore improving situational factors for them to change such as creating condusive external conditions such as providing suitable infrastructure within close proximity of households.In the case of EPR and DRS, the consumers would appreciate if the system is developed in a transparent manner and can ease consumers into taking part proactively and easily.Since convenience is a concern for consumers, well-planned interventions that takes this into consideration will gain cooperation from consumers and help propel the sustainable plastic management agenda forward.
To date, solid waste collection, recycling and disposal in Malaysia is highly fragmented due to the difference in jurisdiction and strategies taken by federal, state and municipalities in tackling waste.This disparity prevents the collection and processing of plastic packaging in a large scale, thus, preventing economies of scale to materialise.By designing and implementing a more standardised, circular and streamlined approach nationwide and enhancing collection systems and providing infrastructures, the message conveyed to consumers will be more uniformed and will make it easier for them to understand and participate in sustainable plastic management.In terms of an EPR or DRS system, Malaysian consumers are ready with the implementation but will also depend on the government and the private sector to ensure that the scheme can be carried out effectively.
Producers or brand owners also play an important role in engaging and influencing consumer behaviour towards sustainable plastic management.Malaysian consumers, especially young consumers are demanding that brands make a significant impact in reducing plastic packaging in their products to reduce potential plastic pollution.This in return creates positive ripples upstream and downstream in the industry's value chain.This can be carried out by communicating effectively the message of proenvironmental behaviour among consumers.

Conclusion
Our current consumption behaviour is one of the underlying drivers of plastic pollution.The survey has shown us that the general consumers are aware of the problems with plastic packaging and are willing to accept the implementation of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Refund System (DRS).They are also willing to participate actively in the process.However, they have concerns on the readiness of Malaysian consumers especially in terms of awareness and mindset, the available infrastructures and also the effectiveness of implementation if EPR and DRS are implemented.The results also indicated to the beverage industry that consumers are receptive of them using a more environmental-friendly plastic packaging material and are willing to switch brands for it, provided the pricing does not differ much from current prices.As most consumers are becoming environmentally conscious, brand owners should communicate and assist consumers with making better choices for the environment.To make transformative change, interventions should be targeted towards consumer behaviours and lifestyles that has the highest impacts on the environment.A combination of interventions upstream and downstream are needed to make it easy for consumers to consume more sustainably such as providing information, legislations, infrastructures and incentives.Due to certain limitations, the study only covers consumers from the Greater Klang Valley area.However, these results can provide some insights to brand owners and policy makers on the suitable intervention points for the beverage industry and other segments of the FMCG sector.For a more comprehensive view on this, a nation-wide survey is suggested.

Table 2 .
Summary of respondents' demographic background.

Table 3 .
Results of environmental awareness and consumer behaviour.

Table 4 .
Results on importance of packaging to consumers.

Table 6 .
Results on encouragement to return plastic packaging.

Table 7 .
Results on consumer preference on location to return plastic packaging.

Table 8 .
Reasons DRS is not suitable for Malaysia.