The English Plastic Bag Charge and Behavioural Spillover: A Field Experiment, Diary Study and Secondary Data Analysis

可持续发展的最大挑战之一是找到能够促进有意义和持久的行为改变的有效和可接受的政策。虽然提供适当的设施可以鼓励许多人进行回收利用，但很难改变其他与废物有关的习惯。与此同时，政府也不太愿意引入成本高昂的监管措施。因此，人们对有助于改变行为的低成本、社会可接受的政策非常感兴趣。将于2015年10月在英国引入的塑料袋收费（PBC）可以被视为这样一种工具。先前的研究表明，PBCs很受欢迎，易于实施，并且可以成功地减少塑料袋的使用（Convery et al. 2007; Poortinga et al. 2013）。一些政策制定者希望这些好处可以更进一步，因为对一种相对简单的行为的改变可能会导致其他更大的改变（Defra 2008）。第一个行为改变可以作为“进门的第一步”，帮助建立可能随后导致其他变化的经验-也称为行为溢出（Thogersen & Crompton 2009）。这有望在没有繁琐监管的情况下实现具有成本效益的重大变革。事实上，申请者之前进行的研究发现，在2011年10月威尔士引入类似的塑料袋收费后，环境认同发生了重大变化（Poortinga et al. 2013）。然而，很少有证据表明环境领域的行为溢出。该项目的总体目标是产生高质量的现场实验和定性证据，证明生活方式的改变和英国PBC带来的潜在BSO。引入英语PBC是进行这项研究的一个独特机会，因为它是一个相对简单的工具，旨在改变一个特定的和常见的与废物有关的习惯。然而，人们对PBC对生活方式的影响知之甚少。观察到即使是小额收费也会产生巨大的变化，这表明PBC的作用是“习惯破坏者”，迫使购物者重新考虑他们的塑料袋使用，而不是作为一种经济工具（Poortinga 2013）。此外，由于“自带垃圾袋”是一种非常明显和象征性的行为，它可能会改变人们对自己废物意识的看法。这可能导致其他与废物有关的行为改变。该项目建立在申请人之前的研究基础上（Poortinga et al. 2013），但将通过开展混合方法纵向工作计划来扩大研究的规模和深度，包括(1)新颖的实地实验，(2)定性日记研究，(3)辅助数据分析，以详细检查PBC的有效性；它是如何工作的；以及是否会产生行为溢出效应。它将使用威尔士和苏格兰作为比较，以便将英格兰PBC的影响与塑料袋使用和废物处理的其他趋势分开。此外，拟议的项目使用二级数据分析和行为映射练习来确定最有可能发生行为溢出的候选者。

One of the greatest challenges of sustainable development is to find effective and acceptable policies that can foster meaningful and lasting behaviour change. While many people can be encouraged to recycle by providing adequate facilities, it is very difficult to change other waste-related habits. At the same time, governments have become less willing to introduce expensive regulation. Consequently there is great interest in low-cost, socially acceptable policies that help support behaviour change. The plastic bag charge (PBC) that is going to be introduced in England in October 2015 can be seen as such an instrument. Previous research has shown that PBCs are popular, easy to implement, and can successfully reduce plastic bag use (Convery et al. 2007; Poortinga et al. 2013).Some policy-makers hope that the benefits may go even further, in that changes to a relatively simple behaviour may lead to other, more ambitious changes (Defra 2008). The first behaviour change may serve as a 'foot in the door' to help establish experiences that may subsequently lead to other changes - also known as behavioural spillover (Thogersen & Crompton 2009). This holds the promise that significant cost-effective changes can be made without burdensome regulation. Indeed, previous research conducted by the applicants found significant changes in environmental identity after a similar carrier bag charge was introduced in Wales in October 2011 (Poortinga et al. 2013). However, there is very little evidence of behavioural spillover in the environmental domain.The overall aim of the project is to generate high-quality field-experimental and qualitative evidence of lifestyle change and potential BSO resulting from the English PBC. The introduction of the English PBC is a unique opportunity to conduct this research, as it is a relatively simple instrument that aims to change a specific and common waste-related habit. However, little is known about the lifestyle impacts of a PBC. The observation that even small charges produce great changes, suggests that a PBC acts as a 'habit disruptor' that forces shoppers to rethink their plastic bag use, rather than as an economic instrument (Poortinga 2013). Furthermore, as 'bringing your own bag' is a highly visible and symbolic behaviour, it may change how people perceive themselves in terms of waste-consciousness. This then may lead to other waste-related behaviour changes.The project builds upon previous research of the applicants (Poortinga et al. 2013), but will expand the scale and depth of the study by conducting a mixed-method longitudinal programme of work, including (1) a novel field experiment, (2) a qualitative diary study, and (3) secondary data analyses, to examine in detail how effective a PBC can be; how it works; and whether it can produce behavioural spillover. It will use Wales and Scotland as comparators to allow the effects of the English PBC to be separated from other trends in carrier bag use and waste practices. Furthermore, the proposed project uses secondary data analysis and a behaviour mapping exercise to identify the most likely candidates for behavioural spillover.