Analysis of Plastic Consumption and Waste Management at QUTIC

This report, submitted by a QUTIC student, investigates plastic consumption and waste management practices. The study involved a questionnaire completed by 12 students from various faculties and countries. The report presents findings on demographic information, awareness of plastic usage, current practices like separating waste, barriers to reducing plastic use, and recycling habits. Key findings include the primary source of plastic bags being supermarkets and varying levels of awareness regarding plastic waste as a serious problem. The report includes graphical representations of the data and concludes with a discussion of the findings, comparing them to existing literature, and providing recommendations for QUT based on the research, emphasizing the importance of action in the context of broader environmental concerns.

Running head: PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 1
Plastic consumption and waste management
Firstname Lastname
Name of Institution

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 2
QCD211 Communication 2
Assessment task 1c :
Proficiency of QUT students on plastic pollution
Name: Firstname Lastname
Student Id:
Date : September 27, 2019
DISCLAIMER (TICK EACH BOX):
☒ I hold a copy of this assignment if the original is lost or damaged.
☒ I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been copied from
any other student’s work or from any other source except where due
acknowledgement is made in the assignment.
☒ I hereby certify that no part of this assignment or product has been submitted in
another (previous or current) assessment, except where appropriately referenced,
and with prior permission from the Lecturer / Tutor / Unit Coordinator for this unit.
☒ No part of the assignment/product has been written/produced for me by any other
person.

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 3
Table of Contents
List of figures..............................................................................................................................................4
List of tables................................................................................................................................................4
1.0. Background.....................................................................................................................................5
2.0. Findings...........................................................................................................................................6
2.1. Demographic Information............................................................................................................6
2.2. Awareness of usage of plastic bags in carrying rubbish...............................................................7
2.3. Present Practices: Difficulty in separating general waste and recycling at home.........................8
2.4. Present practices: Reducing the impact of plastic waste..............................................................9
2.5. Barriers and Sources of plastic bags..........................................................................................10
2.6. Best practices and Frequency of recycling plastic wastes..........................................................11
2.7. Quantifying current usage of plastic..........................................................................................12
2.8. Acknowledging Plastic waste as a serious problem...................................................................13
2.9. Best practices: Eco-friendly packaging......................................................................................14
2.10. International overview on Plastic problems in other countries...............................................15
2.11. Need for abolishing plastic bags by supermarkets.................................................................16
3.0. Discussion.....................................................................................................................................16
Demographic Information.....................................................................................................................16
3.1. Awareness of plastic Usage.......................................................................................................16
3.2. Existing practices.......................................................................................................................17
3.3. Best Practices.............................................................................................................................17
4.0. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 4
List of figures
Figure 1:Graph for putting it the council bin...............................................................................................7
Figure 2:Graph of difficult to separate my general waste............................................................................8
Figure 3:Graph of reducing the impact of plastic waste..............................................................................9
Figure 4: Graph of how to carry shopping contents...................................................................................10
Figure 5: graph of frequency of recycle your plastic waste.......................................................................11
Figure 6: Graph of Number of plastic bags used.......................................................................................12
Figure 7:Graph of if Plastic waste is a serious problem.............................................................................13
Figure 8: Graph of willingness to pay more for eco-friendly packaging....................................................14
Figure 9:Graph of plastic problem is in your home country......................................................................15
List of tables
Table 1 : Demographic Information............................................................................................................5
Table 2: Putting it the council bin................................................................................................................6
Table 3:difficult to separate my general waste............................................................................................8
Table 4: How to carry shopping contents....................................................................................................9
Table 5: Frequency of recycle your plastic waste......................................................................................10
Table 6: Number of plastic bags used........................................................................................................11
Table 7: Plastic waste is a serious problem................................................................................................12
Table 8:willingness to pay more for eco-friendly packaging.....................................................................13
Table 9:plastic problem is in your home country.......................................................................................14

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 5
1.0. Background
Increased plastic consumption and production has huge environmental and human health effects.
Thus, plastic decrease has now become a major hurdle. Since practical solutions may be
inadequate to reduce the issue, a context is needed to illustrate the effect of human behavior. The
present literature review gives an overview of the current plastic literature, varying from danger
awareness, consumer behavior, and user behavior determinants to techniques of economic and
psychological assistance. By examining the journals, we strive to find potential considerations to
decrease plastic consumption in long term initiatives. Is well established and in all elements of
everyday life plastics as cheap yet sturdy materials were widely used worldwide and have aided
society's progress by different means. They have also been helpful in several areas, such as
transport, telecommunications, food, clothing, and medical care (North & Halden, 2013). As per
North and Halden (2013), yearly plastic manufacturing globally exceeded 300 million tons.
Though, this increasing production and pervasive use does have its own detrimental effect on the
world as many taken care plastic materials ended up turning into litter, waste and environmental
damage (Faraca & Astrup, 2019). As said by (Northfield, 2019) it's not plastic that is to keep
blaming, however human abuse of plastic. Pandey (2016) discovered each category of plastics
has a different structure and thus bears its own harm to human life. Most plastic materials are
claimed to be resistant to degradation under impact of sun and/or microorganisms and therefore
can continue to exist in the atmosphere for thousands of years, enabling constant exposure to
plastic ingredients and increases the risk of their aggregation, which provides them the chance of
appearing dangerous (Clarke, 2019). These impacts typically involve devastation of the stunning
beauty of the habitat, wild and marine animal injuries and deaths, and obstruction of sewerage
systems that help propagate many communicable diseases. Furthermore, the plastic
manufacturing process adds to the global conflict (Briassoulis, Hiskakis & Babou, 2013).

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 6
To investigate the behavior and attitude towards usage of plastic materials, a research was done
using questionnaire which were filled by QUTIC students. The research was based on majorly 5
elements; demographic information, awareness of plastic usage, existing practices, Barriers
towards abolishing plastics, and best practices. The findings were discussed and conclusion
drawn.
2.0. Findings
2.1. Demographic Information
Table 1 : Demographic Information
Responden
t
Q1
Faculty
Q2
Country
Q3 Age
1 HEALTH India 18-24
2
BUSINES
S
China 18-24
3 IT China 25-34
4 Business China 18-34
5 Health India 18-24
6 IT India 18-24
7 Business China 25-34
8 Health India 18-24
9 IT China 18-24
10 Business India 18-24
11 IT India 25-34
12 HEALTH China 18-24

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 7
The results in table above shows the demographic information of the student who participated in
filling the questionnaire. The findings show that twelve students both males and females
participated in this study by filling in the questionnaire. The student came from three faculties
(Business, IT and Health), with each faculty being represented by four participants. Indians and
Chinese participated with six Indians and six Chinese. Youthful age group of 18 to 24 dominated
the study followed by age group of 25 to 34. The problem and limitation faced was lack of
students from other countries other than China and India, since QUTIC hosted students from
different countries. Lack of findings from other faculties
2.2. Awareness of usage of plastic bags in carrying rubbish
Table 2: Putting it the council bin
Level of agreement Number
Strongly Agree 3
Agree 7
Somewhat Agree 2
Somewhat Disagree 0
Disagree 0
Strongly Disagree 0

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 8
Strongly
Agree Agree Somewhat
Agree Somewhat
Disagree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Q4
Level of agreement
Number of Participants
Figure 1:Graph for putting it the council bin
The above graph shows the findings by which the students were asked if they took their rubbish
in plastic bags when placing in the dustbin council. It was established that out of 12 student who
responded, 7 of them agree and three of the twelve strongly agree while 2 agreed but were not
sure. At least none of them disagree for not carrying their rubbish in plastic bags as they take
them to dustbin council
2.3. Present Practices: Difficulty in separating general waste and recycling at
home
In question 5, the participants were asked if they always find it difficult to separate their general
wastes and recycle them at home. They have had an option of ticking only one answer
depending on their level of agreement. In the findings which is presented in the graph below, it
was found that out of 12 participants, six of them somewhat agreed, 3 strongly agreed and 2
agreed. This was 50%, 25% and 16.67% respectively. Furthermore, one person disagreed that
they don’t face difficulty in separating wastes and recycling them.

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 9
Table 3:difficult to separate my general waste
Level Of agreement Number
Strongly Agree 3
Agree 2
Somewhat Agree 6
Somewhat Disagree 0
Disagree 1
Strongly Disagree 0
Strongly
Agree Agree Somewhat
Agree Somewhat
Disagree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Level of agreement
Number of Participants
Figure 2:Graph of difficult to separate my general waste
2.4. Present practices: Reducing the impact of plastic waste
The results presented in the figure below were the answers from the students where they were
given only one option to click if they were willing to pay a certain amount to reduce the impact
of plastic waste. 33.33% of the participants somewhat agreed, with 33.33% agreeing. Similarly,
33.33% disagreed.

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 10
Strongly
Agree Agree Somewhat
Agree Somewhat
Disagree Disagree Strongly
Disagree
1
3
4
3
1
0
Level of Agreement
Number of participants
Figure 3:Graph of reducing the impact of plastic waste
2.5. Barriers and Sources of plastic bags
To find the main source of plastic bags and the suppliers of the plastic bags into the QUTIC
environment, a question was imposed in which the participants in survey were asked what they
normally use to carry their shopping contents. The results found that 50% are provided with
shopping bags by the supermarkets with 5/12 (41.67%) use their reusable bags, with only one
person have different carrier other than plastic bags
Table 4: How to carry shopping contents
Plastic bags provided by the
supermarket 6
I bring my own reusable bags 5
I do not use any carrier (i.e. I carry
the goods by hand) 0
Other (please specify): 1

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 11
Plastic bags provided by the supermarket
I bring my own reusable bags
I do not use any carrier (i.e. I carry the goods by hand)
Other (please specify):
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Finding 7
Number of participant
sources of carrier bags
Figure 4: Graph of how to carry shopping contents
The bigger percentage found that supermarket is the main suppliers of plastic into the
environment. All shopping ended up at the supermarket and since the students are aware of free
provision of plastic packaging, the main source of plastic is the supermarket. some people who
bring their own reusable packages seems to be informed on the impact of plastic at their homes.
Other packaging material could be clothing bags, sisal and reeds bags while others use paper
boxes
2.6. Best practices and Frequency of recycling plastic wastes
The participants gave their views on the frequency of how they recycle their plastic waste. The
question asked was: How often do you usually recycle your plastic waste? It was found that 3 out
of 12 (25%) recycles their plastic every day, 6 out of 12 (50%) recycle a few times a week, with
2 out 12 (16.67%0, recycle about once a week and 1 out of 12 (8.33%) several times a month.
Table 5: Frequency of recycle your plastic waste
Every day or nearly every day 3
A few times a week 6

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 12
About once a week 2
Several times a month 1
About once a month 0
Less than once a month 0
1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Less than once a month About once a month
Several times a month About once a week
A few times a week Every day or nearly every day
Figure 5: graph of frequency of recycle your plastic waste
2.7. Quantifying current usage of plastic
The results present below shows the findings on How many plastic bags are used by the
participants per week. The answers to this question were given in ranges in which 33.33% of the
participants stated that they use between 6 to 10 plastics bags per week and only two participants
don’t use plastic bag. The findings are presented in the graph below
Table 6: Number of plastic bags used
between 1 - 5 3
between 6-10 4
between 11-15 1
16 or more 2
I don’t use plastic bags 2

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 13
between 1 - 5 betweeen 6-10 between 11-15 16 or more I don’t use
plastic bags
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
Finding 9
Number of plastic bags used
Number
Figure 6: Graph of Number of plastic bags used
2.8. Acknowledging Plastic waste as a serious problem
The participants were later asked to give their views on the plastic wastes. The question imposed
was to ask them if really, they considered plastic wastes as a serious problem. It was found that
bigger percent accept that plastic is a serious environmental problem with 11 out of 12
participants stating they serious problem and only 1 person claiming it is not that serious
Table 7: Plastic waste is a serious problem
Extremely serious 3
Very serious 7
Somewhat serious 1
Not that serious 1
Not at all serious 0

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 14
Extremely serious
Very serious
Somewhat serious
Not that serious
Not at all serious
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Figure 7:Graph of if Plastic waste is a serious problem
2.9. Best practices: Eco-friendly packaging
The findings on the participants willingness to pay more for eco-friendly packaging are shown in
the figure below. It was established that 50% of the participants were likely willing to spend
more on eco-friendly packaging materials. Only one person due to reason which he could not
expound on was unlikely willing to pay more on eco-friendly packaging
Table 8:willingness to pay more for eco-friendly packaging
Very likely 3
Likely 6
Somewhat likely 1
Somewhat unlikely 1
Unlikely 1
Very unlikely 0

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 15
Very likely Likely Somewhat
likely Somewhat
unlikely Unlikely Very unlikely
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Finding 11
Likelyness
Number of participants
Figure 8: Graph of willingness to pay more for eco-friendly packaging
2.10. International overview on Plastic problems in other countries
Since the QUTIC is an international school hosting people from different countries. A question
on how serious the plastic is a problem in the participant’s home country was imposed. The
participant ticked the various levels of seriousness and the findings are represented in the figure
below. None of the participants in survey found plastic usage in their country to be extremely
serious but at least 8 out of 12 (66.67%) found it as a very serious problem.
Table 9:plastic problem is in your home country
Extremely serious 0
Very serious 8
Somewhat serious 3
Not that serious 1
Not at all serious 0

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 16
Extremely
serious Very serious Somewhat
serious Not that
serious Not at all
serious
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Finding 12
Level of seriousness
Number
Figure 9:Graph of plastic problem is in your home country
2.11. Need for abolishing plastic bags by supermarkets
Finally, the participants were asked to give their concluding views on supermarkets abolishing
use of plastic bags. Generally, most of the participants supported the abolishment with some
stating it is easily disposable while others claimed that plastic bags are cheaper than other bags.
The bigger percentage of participants (25%) seems to be undecided on the abolishment of plastic
bags
3.0. Discussion
Demographic Information
The demographic information from the study shows that Chinese and Indians were the main
participants on this study. The reason can be that the main percentage of students at QUTIC
comprise of Indians and Chinese, with few from other countries. The college generally contain
youthful population that is the reason why the main age group was 18-24.
3.1. Awareness of plastic Usage
From the results obtained it can be seen that the bigger percentage of the student at QUTIC are
aware of usage of plastic bags. This can be caused by the fact that the government has not come

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 17
up with an alternative carriage bag other than plastic. Another reason is that these plastic bags
they are given freely in the supermarket as they shop (Joseph, 2016). Last but not least, with the
students’ lives, plastic bags seem to be the cheapest and reusable hence minimizes the cost of
buying other bags (Kish, 2018).
3.2. Existing practices
The results found that the students have difficulty in separating their waste and recycle them at
home. The reason behind these could have been due to lack of enough time to perform waste
separation. The waste obtained seems to be so filthy and with bad smell and no one was willing
to separate them instead dispose them. Lastly the readily available plastic packages from shops
and supermarket could have made the users not to separate te the wastes ("Focus on plastics
recycling", 2019).
Since no one liked the plastic environment due to its impact on environment, most people had no
option but to agree in spending more in reduction of plastic wastes (Lamontagne, 2015). The
dissenting view could have been due to lack of awareness on the impact of such plastic in the
environment or lack of funds to spend on reducing plastics
3.3. Best Practices
The results for recycling plastic wastes is an indication that most people recycle their plastic
wastes a few times a week and others every day. The reason behind this practice is that the users
are getting in reality with the impact of plastic pollution on their environment. Some who do
environmental study have started accepting the methods of reduction and opting for recycling.
It can also be observed the commitment and awareness created by which currently, the students
are now willing to spend more incase an eco-friendly packaging program is adopted. All this
practice is a positive sign of environmental concerns and this can only be adopted after public

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 18
awareness and education on importance of environment (McAfee, Alleway & Connell, 2019).
This also goes hand in hand with the response to abolishment of plastic packaging by
supermarket. Those who don’t want to talk about it could be wondering how they will carry their
wastes, how costly will it be, and which material will the supermarket use to pack their products
Lastly, other nations have accepted that the use of plastic is a threat to environment. From the
study, even though the students who participated came from China and India, these is a clear
indication that China with most population cannot survive with plastic waste instead seek for an
alternative (WIEDERKEHR, 2012).
4.0. Conclusion
This research project has successfully investigated the behaviors and attitudes of students from
QUT on usage of plastic. The research findings have drawn a number of recommendations which
can be put in practice. It has been found that no one is happy with environmental degradation and
mostly plastics waste. People are aware of the impact of plastics on environmental including
health effect, blockages of sewers, threat to animals and bad scenery. It is recommended that
supermarket, the main supplier of plastic bags, to look for an alternative method of packaging for
their customers. Countries should be united in abolishing the usage of plastic and declare it an
international threat to environment. It also recommended that the government should subsidized
on the cost of using eco-friendly packaging materials. Lastly, the government concerned with the
environment, should create public awareness on the usage of plastic as a threat to environment

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 19
References
Briassoulis, D., Hiskakis, M., & Babou, E. (2013). Technical specifications for mechanical
recycling of agricultural plastic waste. Waste Management, 33(6), 1516-1530. doi:
10.1016/j.wasman.2013.03.004
Clarke, H. (2019). China's Tsunami of Waste [plastic waste]. Engineering & Technology, 14(3),
48-51. doi: 10.1049/et.2019.0308
Faraca, G., & Astrup, T. (2019). Plastic waste from recycling centres: Characterisation and
evaluation of plastic recyclability. Waste Management, 95, 388-398. doi:
10.1016/j.wasman.2019.06.038
Focus on plastics recycling. (2019). Reinforced Plastics, 63(2), 62. doi:
10.1016/j.repl.2019.01.038
Joseph, N. (2016). Usage of Plastic Bags and Health Hazards: A Study to Assess Awareness
Level and Perception about Legislation Among a Small Population of Mangalore City.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC RESEARCH. doi:
10.7860/jcdr/2016/16245.7529
Kish, R. (2018). USING LEGISLATION TO REDUCE ONE-TIME PLASTIC BAG USAGE.
Economic Affairs, 38(2), 224-239. doi: 10.1111/ecaf.12287
Lamontagne, N. (2015). Efficient, Profitable Recycling. Plastics Engineering, 71(3), 4-8. doi:
10.1002/j.1941-9635.2015.tb01313.x
McAfee, D., Alleway, H., & Connell, S. (2019). Environmental solutions sparked by
environmental history. Conservation Biology. doi: 10.1111/cobi.13403

PLASTIC CONSUMPTION AND WASTE MANAGEMENT 20
North, E., & Halden, R. (2013). Plastics and environmental health: the road ahead. Reviews On
Environmental Health, 28(1), 1-8. doi: 10.1515/reveh-2012-0030
Northfield, R. (2019). The problem with plastic [plastic waste recycling]. Engineering &
Technology, 14(3), 26-29. doi: 10.1049/et.2019.0302
WIEDERKEHR, S. (2012). On the Uses and Disadvantages of Fragmented Governance for
Sport. Diplomatic History, 36(3), 669-673. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7709.2012.01048.x