Identifying the Barriers and Drivers towards Limiting the Single-Use Plastic Water Bottles at Universities in the UAE

Background: Higher education institutions worldwide face a major environmental issue from single-use plastic water bottles, because the UAE leads global plastic consumption per person at 285 Liters of bottled water annually. The UAE university sector faces ongoing challenges with plastic bottle reduction despite official sustainability programs, because evidence-based solutions must tackle the multiple behavioural, structural, and cultural elements that affect academic plastic usage. Aim: The research aims to investigate the factors affecting the high consumption rates of disposable plastic bottles across university campuses in the UAE, identify key barriers and drivers that influence stakeholder behaviour, and prioritize intervention strategies for effective plastic waste reduction in higher education environments. Methodology: The study followed a structured three-phase mixed-method approach, combining the Delphi technique with sustainability experts over two rounds to identify key factors, followed by a Likert-scale survey assessing perceptions of the campus users (n=384 students, faculty, and staff). Barriers and drivers were prioritized using the Weighted Scoring Method (WSM), with data collected through stratified random sampling across various UAE universities. Results and Discussions: The study established five main obstacles which may interfere with plastic reduction goals: Cultural habits favoring the use of plastic (mean=3.66), concerns about safety and health risks from alternative products (mean=3.41), limited access to refill stations (mean=3.31), lack of environmental knowledge (mean=3.06), and high cost of reusable products (mean=2.99). The main factors that influence behavior include peer pressure (mean=3.58), convenient access to refill stations (mean=3.47), university leadership backing (mean=3.35), reward systems (mean=3.32), and environmental awareness programs (mean=3.31). The results show that stakeholders ranked all factors at similar levels, since no single element stood out as more important than others. Multiple factors need simultaneous attention for successful plastic reduction initiatives because single-point solutions prove ineffective. The study shows that successful implementation requires universities to create complete solutions that merge policy development with infrastructure enhancement, educational programs and behavioural modification approaches. The research delivers essential evidence-based recommendations for university administrators and policymakers. The research findings indicate that universities need to create diverse programs which tackle cultural aspects, build infrastructure, and deliver educational content to reduce plastic bottle use effectively.