No more plastic bags : overcoming consumer resistance to sustainability regulation

Reports about environmental problems such as polluted oceans, toxic rivers, and extinction of species pop up every-where. As the challenges of the environmental crisis accelerate, governments are searching for solutions to reduce the negative impact of economic activity that threatens communities, regions, and society as a whole. Regulation is a common response to restrict harmful consumer and corporate behavior. A very popular object of regulation is the plastic bag – almost an icon of marine and terrestrial pollution. By 2018, nearly 130 countries had implemented some form of ban on using disposable plastic bags. Despite their popularity, bans on plastic bags are often met with strong pushback by consumers, retailers, and other members of society. Why do consumers push back against such a seemingly reasonable regulation? And what can be done to reduce such resistance and win consumers over to play along in measures for protecting the environment? Our research on Chile ́s nationwide ban of plastic bags in 2019 (see Box 1) enabled us to answer these questions and develop some guidelines for the successful implementation of sustainability interventions