Why do people ignore the 'plastic bag diet' campaign? an Indonesian consumers perspective

As an effort to minimize the climate change impact, reducing plastic waste is urgently needed. Unfortunately, so far this effort has not yielded maximal results, even though the 'plastic bag diet' campaign has been intensified. This paper interrogates the reason why Indonesian consumers/shoppers disregarded and did not even care about the campaign. Using Focus Group Discussion, the authors discussed with two groups of different shoppers, namely the regular shoppers and non-regular shoppers. The discussion is divided into three topics. First, the habit of using plastic shopping bags. Second, awareness of avoiding the use of plastic shopping bags. Third, the possibility to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. The results show that both regular and non-regular shopper groups do not mind paying 200IDR for plastic shopping bags because it is financially not detrimental, and they are reluctant to bring their shopping bags. Besides being troublesome, some of the participants also considered it old-fashioned. However, non-regular shoppers tend to have an awareness of environmental preservation better than regular shoppers. Therefore, we conclude several factors that cause consumers to ignore 'plastic bag diet' campaign, including functional, social, cultural, and structural reasons.