SURVEY AND ASSESSMENT OF THE STUDENTS’ AWARENESS AND BEHAVIORS ABOUT WASTE SORTING AND SINGLE USE PLASTIC CONSUMPTION HABITS

Abstract

In this study, cognitive and behavioral surveys about the habits of waste sorting and single use plastic consumption were conducted for students of Vietnam Maritime University. The results obtained 1,513 responses out of 14,455 students in total, resulting in high reliability, with an error of 2.4%. The survey results show that most of the students have an understanding of the harmful effects of single-use plastic, accounting for 95.85%, but students' concern and understanding of the meaning of plastic codes/labels is still limited. Up to 57% of students failed to identify groups of waste sorting. The habit of consuming single-use plastics is still quite common among students, 55.2% of students use foam boxes every day, 67.2% use plastic water bottles, and 91.3% use nylon bags. The percentage of reusing plastics among students is not high, accounting for only 51.6%. However, a fairly high percentage of students support taxing restaurants, vendors, and trading establishments, accounting for 73.6%; their willingness to pay for single-use plastic accounts for 63.7%, and to use green products as a substitution for single-use plastics at 79.2%. This result shows that the possibility of applying fees and taxes in single-use plastics and replacing it with environmentally friendly green products is a possible trend. The study also proposes four recommendations to raise awareness and change the behavior and habits of single-use plastics consumption among students.