CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
The use of plastics has increased dramatically in the past 50 years. Since then, from the 1950s onwards, multinational corporations such as Coca-Cola invested in public-information campaigns that emphasized the fact that “Packages don’t litter, people do.” In these advertisements, consumers are directed to eliminate their waste in a responsible way and are held to be completely responsible for the litter they leave behind.
The message that is underlying them is simple: companies can make use of the amount of plastic packaging they wish, as long as they’re able to shift the responsibility to dispose of the product at the end of its life phase onto the consumer. Specially funded organizations by multinational corporations were established to support this kind of educational campaign: Keep America Beautiful came in 1953 and then, sister organizations were established in different countries. The current escalating rate of plastic pollution demonstrates that any attempts to shift responsibility onto consumers ‘ behavior have been anything less than effective.
INFLUENCE ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
Of course, there is no way to argue against the necessity of a responsible consumer behavior and educating people on how to manage their waste responsibly. But can we combat the plastic soup with behavioural changes on your own? Half a century of education campaigning in the United States has not changed much.
American cities are beginning to feel pressure to ban some items like plastic bags and disposable cups. Plastic pollution is now impossible to control. It is only now that actions are being taken to address the issues that the industry, through educational campaigns, has tried desperately to avoid taxes on packaging materials the ban on certain products, and the fact that (bottle) schemes for deposit are becoming obligatory.
COCA-COLA’S WORLD WITHOUT WASTE-CAMPAIGN
Coca-Cola has been utilizing the “World Without Waste” campaign since. One of the goals of this campaign is that, through collaboration with local groups ,all Coca-Cola packaging and containers will be recycled to be reused globally in 2025. This sounds amazing and excitingIt’s. That’s 3 million tonnes of packaging made from plastic, which is equivalent to the equivalent of 200,000 bottles per minute. There isn’t a single bottle allowed to be disposed of. What happens if it works? In the Netherlands the strategy was refined with the “Let’s be careful not to waste our summer’ campaign built on consumer behavior.
The campaign advises consumers not to purchase Coca-Cola in the event that they are not willing to recycle its packaging. Everyone must return containers in an ethical and ethical manner that is, those who do so gain the chance to win be awarded prizes. It sounds great, but how will the people who usually throw their cans and bottles in the streets feel this campaign is aimed towards them? Are they going to be able to stop drinking Cola? We don’t think so. This is a smart campaign that offers Coca-Cola the chance to show itself as a sustainable business as well as at the shifts the responsibility for cans and bottles onto the consumers.
