Plastic Packaging in People's Lives: Consumer Insights, 2021-2022

Hadley, Charlotte (2024). Plastic Packaging in People's Lives: Consumer Insights, 2021-2022. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-857315

The data deposited under ‘Consumer Insights: Micro Insights’ represents a part of the data collected for a broader three-year project.

The aim of the three-year project overall was to acquire behavioural insights that will enable policymakers and industry professionals to bridge consumers’ attitude-behaviour gap in plastic packaging reduction. Taking the food sector as an exemplar, this research examined the whole packaging supply chain (from production, to consumption, post-consumption and waste disposal technologies and processes).

As part of this project, the aim of the ‘Consumer Insights: Micro Insights’ research was to develop an in-depth understanding of consumers’ everyday experiences of food plastic packaging across personal and social contexts and their plastic-related knowledge.

An ethnographic study was conducted, focusing on the food-related activities that take place in public and private settings (including the home, the workplace and food shopping environments). Within the scope of this research, we also explored consumers’ divestment of packaging after use, including disposal, reuse, and recycling behaviours.

Data description (abstract)

The overarching purpose of PPiPL is to fundamentally rethink consumer attitudes and behaviours around food plastic packaging.
The data deposited rerpresents part of the data collected for the Consumer Insights work package of the PPiPL project, centred on the factors that influence consumer households’ consumption and disposal of plastic packaging. This includes the historical, economic, and culturally instituted factors that shape choices; and the material, social, and technical contexts where household interactions with packaging occur.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Hadley Charlotte	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3415-1678

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Hadley Charlotte	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3415-1678
Skandalis Alexandros	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0934-9802
Cronin James	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3842-3546
Piacentini Maria	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6182-2185
Stowell Alison	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8829-3981
Mumford Clare	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8814-3705
Verma Savita	Leeds University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4108-0436
Henry Linda	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4186-4908
Hardy John	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0655-2167

Sponsors:

Natural Environment Research Council

Grant reference:

NE/V010611/1

Topic classification:

Society and culture

Keywords:

PLASTICS, CONSUMPTION, ETHNOGRAPHY, ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES, FOOD, PACKAGING, HOUSEHOLDS

Project title:

Plastic Packaging in People's Lives

Grant holders:

Maria Piacentini, Alison Stowell

Project dates:

From	To
2 November 2020	31 May 2024

Date published:

24 Jul 2024 09:44

Last modified:

24 Jul 2024 09:44

Coverage and Methodology

Collection period:

Date from:	Date to:
25 October 2021	3 October 2022

Country:

United Kingdom

Data collection method:

27 households were recruited into an ethnographic study, using a range of complimentary methods: In-depth interviews, short interviews, using photo-elicitation, participant-observation and participant-produced diary entries (written and visual formats)

Diary entries contain participants’ personal everyday experiences relating to food packaging. (This could include insights into their day, particular meals, food planning and preparation for the week ahead, preparing and serving dinner, grocery shopping, unpacking shopping at home, recordings of packaging that has been disposed of via the general waste/recycling bins, for instance.) Diary entries also include participant thoughts, feelings and observations that involve food and food packaging.

When sampling households, we followed the Office of National Statistics’ (ONS) 2019 definition of a household as: One person living alone, or a group of people (not necessarily related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and share a living room, sitting room or dining area. A household can consist of a single family, more than one family, or no families in the case of a group of unrelated people.

Diversity and representation of different types of households was purposefully sought out with the only mandatory criterium for inclusion being that the Head of the household is is an adult (i.e. 18 yrs. old or older).

Our sample included 1-person to 6-person households, varying in terms of household composition (e.g. people living alone, couples, or lone parents with 1-2 dependent/non-dependent children, student households, tenants in a multi-occupancy home) and household tenure (e.g. rented, student accommodation, own home/mortgage). Our participants also showed diversity in terms of age (ranging from 19- 60 years old), sex (20 females and 7 males) education (ranging from Higher National Diploma (HND), A-level and university-level qualifications), occupational area (e.g. education, business, communications, administration, science, environment, agriculture) and the frequency in which their food shopping was undertaken.

Observation unit:

Individual, Household

Kind of data:

Text, Still image

Type of data:

Qualitative and mixed methods data

Resource language:

English

Access and Administration

Data sourcing, processing and preparation:

All participants have been anonymised using pseudonyms. This also includes other people that our participants have referred to during the course of the data collection process. All data file names use the pseudonyms assigned to our participants.

Rights owners:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Piacentini Maria	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6182-2185
Stowell Alison	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8829-3981
Skandalis Alexandros	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0934-9802
Cronin James	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3842-3546
Henry Linda	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4186-4908
Hardy John	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0655-2167

Contact:

Name	Email	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Stowell, Alison	a.stowell@lancaster.ac.uk	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8829-3981
Piacentini, Maria	m.piacentini@lancaster.ac.uk	Lancaster University	https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6182-2185