Our project​

Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives (PPiPL): Rethinking the consumer attitude behaviour gap (NE/V010611/1) focused on how plastic food packaging is embedded in consumers’ day-to-day lives.

​Taking a holistic approach to rethink consumer behaviour around plastic packaging, using food plastic packaging as an exemplar, the PPiPL project examined the whole packaging supply chain (production, consumption, post-consumption, waste disposal technologies and processes).​

​Over the three-and-a-half-year project, we acquired insights that will enable policymakers and industry professionals to bridge consumers’ attitude-behaviour gap in plastic packaging reduction.

Our goals

• To produce a comprehensive overview of socio-cultural, historical and industrial conditions, public preferences, post-consumer pathways and legal structures feeding the perceived legitimacy of plastic packaging in the UK.  
• To provide an in-depth understanding of plastic packaging consumption and disposal within UK households.
• To explore how the public interprets information about packaging and its social and economic impacts. To identify sources of public concern that prevent adoption or purchase of smart & sustainable alternatives.  
• To understand the response of supply chains to customer attitudes and behaviours related to plastic packaging.  
• To enter discourse with supply chain actors around the attitude-behaviour gap, as a mechanism for collaboration to drive change.
• To explore plastic waste management and disposal practices.  
• To explore how our findings can help to create real-world impact on consumer and business behaviours.