Data to Voluntary Motivation to Reduce Plastic Consumption of Individuals

Plastic consumption and the subsequently produced plastic waste is a global threat to humanity. People’s voluntary motivation to reduce their plastic consumption is one key factor to reduce the overall level of plastic waste. The paper at hand analyses the predictive power of the goal-striving reasons framework for subjective (self-reported) and objective (actual) plastic consumption of UK households. Employing the goal-striving reasons framework provides a conceptually new way of looking into people’s voluntary motivation for reducing plastic waste based on people’s most important, idiosyncratic actions they engage in to reduce plastic waste. Based on N = 237 participants (main shopper of the household) the study found, using multiple regression analyses, that positive consequences, as well as the interaction of positive consequences with pleasure, predict people’s subjective plastic waste consumption. Moreover, people’s self-reported subjective plastic waste significantly relates to objective plastic waste. The highest correlation between subjective and objective plastic waste is obtained when an item-specific approach is used. The item-specific approach focuses on 12 items that are relatively easy to substitute, such as wet wipes, water bottles, shampoo bottles, butter tubs and plastic milk bottles. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.