To what extent does Gender modify choice behavior related to green packaging ? A discrete Choice Experiment in Belgium

The packaging industry is projected to become the largest end-users of plastic by volume in Europe. Plastic water bottles and the beverage sector are significant beneficiaries of this market. Now modern concerned stakeholders are paying more concentration in green packaging than conventional packaging, which is fossil-based, although this packaging carried out desirable properties to protect the product. The plastic itself is not the problem all the time; the complication is the mixing up with other waste (e.g., food waste, oils or different varieties of plastics), making the processing economically and environmentally ineffective. Especially, the plastic wrappings (shrinked films used to hold cans/bottles), when processed with heavier, larger and more rigid recycled plastics, increases the risk of clogging in the processing machinery. Treatment of packaging waste in European countries is already impressive in many countries, with Belgium leading the path in the European Union. But still, the wrong or non-disposal of the plastic debris resulted in landfills where leakage in the environment generate pollution risk. Thus, the market expansion of this kind of packaging will cost us dreadfully. To address the issue, consumer purchasing decisions can make a substantial difference. Using a hypothetical Choice Experiment, this study explores consumer preferences and willingness to pay for environmentally friendly packaging alternatives for beverage cans with 206 Belgian consumers. The analyzed cases are Coca-Cola original and Coca-Cola Zero sugar 33cl cans. In addition to a conditional logit model, a mixed logit and a latent class model are estimated to account for heterogeneity in the preferences of eco-friendly packaging alternatives among men and women. The results revealed considerable preference heterogeneity across men and women, e.g., for example, we found men as less sensitive to price than women. Still, on average, they derive positive and significant values from eco-friendly attributes. People are willing to pay the highest mean premium for the 100% recyclability of all materials used for packaging after price attribute. While dealing with the beverage, we have to keep in mind that consumers choice behavior is motivated by consumers age, income, sugar/taste preference, and presence of eco-friendly features.