Government Efforts in Managing Plastic Bags Usage

Despite awareness of the importance of sustaining the environment plus regulations to deter the use of plastic bags when shopping, ceasing to use plastic bags is a behavior that does not come easily to Indonesian consumers. Our survey shows that government regulations alone do not have a direct effect in lessening the use of plastic bags. However, it turns out that guidance through the presence of eco-friendly awareness could be used by the government as a basis to manage consumer behavior in the market. Given this, the Indonesian government would be able to make better policies related to the use of plastic bags in Indonesia, for example, to create a policy where a percentage of goods sold have to be in the form of green products. Indonesian customers tend to reduce their plastic bag usage or purchase green products as a reaction to eco-friendly awareness. This study comes up with a law-like generalization model with regarding to the relationship among variables: government regulations, eco-friendly awareness, the intention to continue using plastic bags, and the intention to purchase green products. This study reveals that the government managing consumer behavior solely through campaigning on eco-friendly matters is not sufficient. They should emphasize more on providing good quality green products in addition to raising community awareness of environmental sustainability, since this research has found that green products are an alternative to using plastic bags.