Awareness of Generation Z Students about The Plaf (Plastic Flamingo) and Other Campaigns Concerning Plastics in Online Shopping
Abstract
Environmental awareness is crucial in addressing the issues of plastic waste and pollution, which have a significant impact on our environment and our health. The study aimed to analyze the awareness of Bulacan State University College of Science Generation Z students regarding PLAF (Plastic Flamingo) and other campaigns related to plastics in online shopping. The researchers used a descriptive research design to achieve this goal and collected data from 350 samples of Generation Z students through a standardized questionnaire distributed via Google Forms. The findings revealed that Shopee is the most commonly used online shopping application by students, and they tend to purchase items online when needed. Bubble wrap emerged as the most frequently used parcel packaging material. The results also indicated that the students are highly aware of the different impacts of parcel packaging, as evidenced by the mean score of 4.02. However, their awareness of environmental campaigns related to plastic was only average, with a mean score of 2.93. In particular, the understanding of PLAF (Plastic Flamingo) was low, with a cumulative mean score of 2.13. The findings suggest the need to improve Generation Z students' awareness of environmental campaigns and promote ecological practices and involvement in addressing plastic waste and pollution issues. Educating and engaging students through various campaigns and initiatives can help raise their awareness of the environmental impacts of plastic waste and encourage them to adopt sustainable practices in their daily lives.
References
Y. Chen and C. Chang, “Towards green trust: The influences of green perceived quality, green perceived risk, and green satisfaction,” Manag. Decis., 2013.
Y. Chen, S. Lin, C. Lin, S. Hung, C. Chang, and C. Huang, “Improving green product development performance from green vision and organizational culture perspectives,” Corp. Soc. Responsib. Environ. Manag., vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 222–231, 2020.
A. Kollmuss and J. Agyeman, “Mind the gap: why do people act environmentally and what are the barriers to pro-environmental behavior?,” Environ. Educ. Res., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 239–260, 2002.
A. C. Michalos et al., “Progress in measuring knowledge, attitudes and behaviours concerning sustainable development among tenth grade students in Manitoba,” Soc. Indic. Res., vol. 123, pp. 303–336, 2015.
C. Chang and Y. Chen, “Green organizational identity and green innovation,” Manag. Decis., 2013.
C. Buckler and H. Creech, Shaping the future we want: UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development; final report. Unesco, 2014.
D. Timmer, C. Buckler, and H. Creech, Supporting the next generation of sustainability leadership. International Institute for Sustainable Development Winnipeg, 2008.
H.-Y. Hsiao et al., “Environmental volunteerism for social good: A longitudinal study of older adults’ health,” Res. Soc. Work Pract., vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 233–245, 2020.
A. Masigan, “The state of e-commerce in the Philippines,” BusinessWorld, 2020. https://www.bworldonline.com/ the-state-of-e-commerce-in-the-philippines (accessed Aug. 02, 2022).
S. B. Borrelle et al., “Predicted growth in plastic waste exceeds efforts to mitigate plastic pollution,” Science (80-. )., vol. 369, no. 6510, pp. 1515–1518, 2020.
J. Chua, “Responsible E-shopping in the time of COVID,” www.greenpeace.org, 2020. https://www.greenpeace.org/philippines/story/10202/responsible-e-shopping-in-the-time-of-covid/ (accessed Feb. 10, 2023).
M. Shen, W. Huang, M. Chen, B. Song, G. Zeng, and Y. Zhang, “(Micro) plastic crisis: un-ignorable contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change,” J. Clean. Prod., vol. 254, p. 120138, 2020.
A. L. Huckelba and P. A. M. Van Lange, “The silent killer: consequences of climate change and how to survive past the year 2050,” Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 9, p. 3757, 2020.
A. Chamas et al., “Degradation rates of plastics in the environment,” ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng., vol. 8, no. 9, pp. 3494–3511, 2020.
L. Rahilly, B. Finneman, and E. Spagnuolo, “Meet Generation Z: Shaping the future of shopping,” McKinsey Co., 2020.
G. Lamichhane et al., “Microplastics in environment: global concern, challenges, and controlling measures,” Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol., vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 4673–4694, 2023.
E. MacArthur, “Beyond plastic waste,” Science, vol. 358, no. 6365. American Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 843, 2017.
J. W. Creswell and J. D. Creswell, Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications, 2017.
L. W. Kreuger and W. L. Neuman, “Social work research methods: Qualitative and quantitative applications,” Bost. New York Pearson Allyn Bacon, 2006.
S. McCombes, Descriptive Research: Definition, Types, Methods & Examples, vol. 10. Scribbr, 2022.
National Institutes of Health, “Malaysian family physician: the official journal of the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia.,” 2006.
N. J. Salkind, Encyclopedia of research design. London, United Kingdom: Sage publications, 2010.
Khan Academy, “Calculating standard deviation step by step,” www.khanacademy.org, 2019. https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/summarizing-quantitative-data/variance-standard-deviation-population/a/calculating-standard-deviation-step-by-step (accessed Jan. 04, 2023).
W. M. Vagias, “Likert-type scale response anchors. Clemson University.” 2006.
M. B. A. Hammami et al., “Survey on awareness and attitudes of secondary school students regarding plastic pollution: implications for environmental education and public health in Sharjah city, UAE,” Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., vol. 24, pp. 20626–20633, 2017.
M. T. B. Dalu, R. N. Cuthbert, H. Muhali, L. D. Chari, A. Manyani, and T. Dalu, “Is awareness on plastic pollution being raised in schools? Understanding perceptions of primary and secondary school educators,” Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 17, p. 6775, 2020.
N. Esa, “Environmental knowledge, attitude and practices of student teachers,” Int. Res. Geogr. Environ. Educ., vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 39–50, 2010.
I. S. Zen, R. Ahamad, and W. Omar, “No plastic bag campaign day in Malaysia and the policy implication,” Environ. Dev. Sustain., vol. 15, pp. 1259–1269, 2013.
G. O. Thomas, E. Sautkina, W. Poortinga, E. Wolstenholme, and L. Whitmarsh, “The English plastic bag charge changed behavior and increased support for other charges to reduce plastic waste,” Front. Psychol., vol. 10, p. 266, 2019.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Copyright of the published article belongs to the authors and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY SA) International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See the Effect of Open Access).