An investigation into Malaysian consumers’ behavioural responses towards complying with “no free plastic bag campaign day”

Plastic bag usage threatens environment. In 2011 the Malaysian Government imposed a nationwide ruling of “no free plastic bag campaign day” (NFPBCD) on Saturdays, whereby on Saturdays retailers were banned from giving free plastic bags to consumers when shopping. The purpose of this study is to investigate Malaysian consumer attitudes, intentions and behavior relating to complying with this initiative. This study was conducted in two phases-quantitative phase and qualitative phase. Using the underpinnings of theory of planned behavior, quantitative study examined the intention to comply with the NFPBCD
initiative, and the findings have shown Malaysian consumers’ attitudes and subjective norms enhance their intention to comply with NFPBCD initiative. However, qualitative study showed respondents have personal negligence in and a lack of responsibility for using nonplastic bags, and so several respondents did not comply with the initiative.