Last year, our Lab, My Step Foundation, Armenak Antinyan (Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, China), and Luca Corazzini (Ça ’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy) implemented a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test several interventions to reduce disposable plastic bag purchase.
The experiment kicked off in the end of January of 2020 and lasted six months. We randomized 5809 participants of the experiment and tested types of nudges.
Compared with the control group (with no intervention), both the financial bonus and the environmental nudge serve as effective policy instruments to reduce disposable plastic bag purchase. Moreover, reusable bags in combination with the environmental nudge or the financial bonus are more effective than the environmental nudge or the financial bonus alone. The financial bonus is substantially more effective than the environmental nudge, irrespective of the absence/presence of reusable bags.
The working paper on the results of the experiment was published under the auspices of the Department of Economics of the Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
The funding for the experiment was provided by the GEF Small Grants program.