Episode 8: Single use plastics and household decision-making

Last year Eastern Arc provided funding for a diverse range of workshops and projects that supported collaborations between the partner universities and beyond.

It has supported 11 projects led by more than 30 academics and researchers at the three universities, and involved the participation of many more.

In episode 8 we look at one of these projects. Dr Danielle Tucker from Essex and Dr Alison Dean from Kent are joined by their former colleague Dr Pamela Yeow, now at Birkbeck, and two research assistants, Dr Zara Babakordi and Dr Aleksandra Besevic, to look at how households manage single use plastic.

Consumers are increasingly aware of the ethical implications of the decisions they make. A report from the Coop in December found that ethical consumerism spending had increased fourfold in the last 20 years to more than £41bn today. 

However, there has been relatively little research on how decisions around ethical consumer spending are made within a household, and the part that each member of the household plays in adopting – or ignoring – the push to reduce our environmental impact. 

Photo by tanvi sharma on Unsplash