IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/envpol/v27y2025i3d10.1007_s10018-025-00440-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impacts of plastic and paper bag legislation on consumer behavior in the United States: Quantitative evidence from a statewide survey in Vermont

Author

Listed:
  • Qingbin Wang

    (University of Vermont)

  • Emily H. Belarmino

    (University of Vermont)

  • Meredith T. Niles

    (University of Vermont)

Abstract

In response to the growing environmental problems directly or indirectly caused by plastic bags, many national and local governments around the world have enacted legislation or ordinances to ban or tax plastic bags and associated products like paper bags. While the effectiveness of such policy interventions is highly dependent on consumer reaction and behavior change, there are limited empirical studies on how such legislation and ordinances have changed consumer behavior in terms of their plastic and paper bag use in the United States. This paper empirically assesses the impacts of the state-level legislation in Vermont that has banned single-use plastic bags and imposed a fee on paper bags. Findings from a statewide survey conducted in 2022 indicate that self-reported average weekly use of plastic bags dropped by 91.47% and the average use of paper bags increased by 6.37% after the legislation went into effect. Further, analysis results of the respondents divided into six typologies according to their use of paper bags before and after the legislation suggest that, while the tax effect of the paper bag fee was negative and significant and the substitution effect of the plastic bag ban on paper bag use was positive and significant, the positive substitution effect was likely stronger than the negative tax effect and therefore resulted in a positive but insignificant total effect on paper bag use. The empirical findings also suggest strong public support for the plastic bag ban, limited support for a potential paper bag ban, and a high level of public satisfaction with the legislation’s implementation and enforcement.

Suggested Citation

  • Qingbin Wang & Emily H. Belarmino & Meredith T. Niles, 2025. "Impacts of plastic and paper bag legislation on consumer behavior in the United States: Quantitative evidence from a statewide survey in Vermont," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 27(3), pages 455-469, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:envpol:v:27:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10018-025-00440-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10018-025-00440-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10018-025-00440-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10018-025-00440-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:envpol:v:27:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10018-025-00440-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.