Research

Two research companies were employed to inform the development of the project: 1) The Halden Group and 2) Applied Marketing Consultants.

The Halden Group carried out quantitative and qualitative research in order to find out:

• What is the present consumption of plastic bags in Barbados? 
• How fast is this growing?
• What will be the probable consumption over the next five years?
• What is the attitude of retailers towards the issue?

The research the import and export data relating to plastics as provided by the Barbados Statistical Service and held one-on-one interviews with retailers.

The main findings were:

1) In 1998 Barbadians used 1,137,297 kg of plastic bags which is the equivalent of 78,928,000 18” x 22” bags. Nearly 79 million bags!!

2) If current growth patterns continue we will be using 100 Million bags by 2004!

3) Retailers were sensitive to the issue. Some had attempted individually to provide alternatives in the past and those interviewed were willing to co-operate and collaborate to do so in the future. Applied Marketing Consultants carried out both qualitative and quantitative research in order to find out:

• What people use plastic bags for in their homes?
• How aware were members of the general public about the plastic bag problem?
• How willing were they to change their usage of plastic bags?
• Which alternatives did they prefer?

The main findings were:

1) 76.4% of interviewees acknowledged that there was a problem with the amount of plastic bags used in Barbados .

2) But only 29.2% perceived that there is a problem in their own household.

3) 96.8% use the “free plastic shopping bags” for garbage and storage.

4) Of these, nearly 80% (79.4%) said that they could reduce the number of bags that they use and still dispose of their garbage adequately and maintain sanitary conditions!

5) Also, nearly 80% (79.6) said they were willing to take their own bags to the supermarket and a cloth bag was the preferred type of bag for this purpose.

6) 75.6% of all people asked felt that a public education campaign to get Barbadians to use less plastic bags would be successful.

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