The determinants of non-consumption of disposable plastic: application of an extended theory of planned behaviour

The main purpose of this study is to explore a framework to predict the non-consumption of disposable plastics behaviour, using the theory of planned behaviour and a further extension adding two new variables to the model: social media engagement and lifestyle values. The empirical research builds on a survey with a sample of 466 individuals using an online questionnaire. Data analysis followed a PLS-SEM approach, to test the group of hypotheses. The group of predictors of social media engagement, lifestyle values, attitude, perceived behaviour control, and intention explain 39,7% of the variance of the expected behaviour of no-use of disposable plastic, which is considered a high value in the consumer behaviour domain. Together, the results show that the theory of planned behaviour proved its applicability in explaining social behaviour and that social media engagement is a very relevant predictor of lifestyle.