Pro-environmental communication activities of paper and plastic packaging producers. Evidence from Poland

The aim of this research is to analyze level of pro-environmental communication activities including the aspect of the circular economy concept in non-financial reports of packaging producers required to report environmental issues (group 1) and compare them to packaging producers which do not have to presents environmental aspects (group 2). Design/methodology/approach: This research uses the text analysis method. Quantitative and qualitative analysis was carried out. The information source in this aspect are non-financial report of paper and plastics producers (30 organizations). All reports were obtained from the National Court Register and cover the years 2019-2021. Statistical analyzes were also performed using the Shapiro -Wilk and U Mann Whitney tests to examine the distribution of variables and the significance of differences between the studied groups. Findings: The quantitative analysis of reports showed that the most of organizations in first group communicated environmental aspects in their reports. Despite the fact that second group do not have obligation to do it there were still some organizations which include these aspects in reports. Statistical analysis did not show any significant differences between the surveyed groups. Qualitative analysis showed that despite the fact that environmental aspects are taken into account in the reports, are treated superficially, and the level of communication in both groups was low and mostly concerned general statements or individual actions. Specified actions or their effects were rarely shown. Descriptive analysis showed that these organizations particularly do not communicate their commitment to circular economy concept. Research limitations/implications: Some limitations were identified in this study, i.e., lack of uniform reporting requirements or problems with reports content verification. Producers were presenting environmental aspects in general way. The law requires a minimum scope of data reporting and what elements will be included depends only on the organization. Originality/value: The article presents the packaging industry in terms of non-financial disclosures communication. No other studies in this field have been identified on such a research group. Also, there no studies have been found include organizations with no obligation to report. Article concentrate on aspects connected with environment but also relatively new circular economy concept.