Overview of Reduce Reuse Recycle: Stakeholder Insights into Reducing Single-Use Plastics in Supermarkets #
The project used stakeholder insights to understand the use of single-use plastics in supermarket retail operations in Southern Australia. Plastic packaging remains deeply entrenched within these operations, despite mounting environmental concerns and increased regulatory and consumer pressures. As critical intermediaries within the packaging value chain, supermarkets occupy a pivotal role in facilitating both upstream and downstream change.
Abstract #
Single-use plastic packaging is deeply entrenched within supermarket retail operations, despite mounting environmental concerns and increased regulatory and consumer pressures. This research applied a systems social marketing lens to understand how supermarkets can reduce single-use plastics (SUP). It identifies the institutional and contextual drivers that shape organisational behaviour.
The study was guided by the Motivation–Opportunity–Ability (MOA) framework, which explains behaviour as the product of: (1) Motivation (the desire and incentives to act). (2) Opportunity (external conditions such as policy, infrastructure, and market readiness that enable or constrain action), and (3) Ability (skills, resources, and organisational capability to implement change). Twenty-six interviews were conducted across government, retail, packaging, waste, recycling, and sustainability sectors to capture both retailer and system-level perspectives.
Findings clustered into themes across all three MOA constructs. Motivation was driven by corporate sustainability commitments, consumer expectations, and reputational and regulatory pressures. However, it was tempered by cost concerns and packaging trade-offs. Opportunity emerged as the pivotal lever: fragmented waste infrastructure, inconsistent regulations, and limited viable packaging alternatives were major barriers, while producer responsibility schemes, aligned national policy, grants, and investment in enabling infrastructure were key enablers. Ability was strengthened through innovation, staff training, and supply-chain collaboration, yet stakeholders consistently noted that motivation and ability were insufficient without supportive structural opportunity.
Overall, the research proposes reordering the framework from MOA to OAM (Opportunity–Ability–Motivation), positioning environmental restructuring and system readiness as prerequisites for sustained organisational change. This provides practical guidance for policymakers and sustainability strategists seeking coordinated, upstream interventions to accelerate the transition from linear to circular packaging models.
Access #
Vanessa Oldroyd – Social Marketing, Griffith University (v.oldroyd@griffith.edu.au)
Location #
Southern Australia; Australia
Keywords #
Plastic Packaging, Motivation, Opportunity, Ability
