Purpose
Survey after survey finds that people, by and large, understand the importance of sustainability. They appreciate sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) efforts made by their employers and the companies they do business with. They will even claim to prefer sustainable and sustainably packaged products when given the choice. But what happens when they don’t have the choice? How much will they inconvenience themselves to make sure what they purchase is sustainably packaged? That’s what ALPLA wanted to know, and it’s why we fielded a survey of 1,000 Americans 18-years-old and older using the third-part survey platform Pollfish.
What we found was that while all of us appreciate sustainable packaging and making sustainable choices, we are much more likely, as we get older, to put more of a premium on our own convenience.
While responses didn’t differ but by a few percentage points between the different regions in the U.S., breaking down responses by age is where this survey provides unique insights.
Key Findings
“While we were broadly pleased to see that most of us understand the value of sustainable packaging and will make the sustainable choice more often than not, we were particularly encouraged to see that younger people are willing to make these choices even when it’s not easy,” said Billy Rice, sustainability manager at ALPLA, North America. “They are willing to go out of their way and spend more of their money in order to live sustainably. Living a life that has a lower impact on the environment doesn’t have to be hard, but it does mean being intentional. And young people seem to have that intention.”
If you were to include those respondents who said they sometimes make the sustainable choice, this total rockets to almost 83% of people. So, most of us seem to understand that it’s important to make sustainably focused choices.
But even in this initial result we can see a gulf start to form between older respondents and younger.
This is a gap that we will only see widen once questions about convenience are asked.
Nearly 50% of 18- to 34-year-olds are willing to travel 10 miles or more to a store that uses sustainable packaging.
By contrast, nearly 50% of respondents 35 or older—44%—weren’t willing to travel to find a store that uses sustainable packaging.
79% of 18- to 34-year-olds are willing to pay more for products or food that are packaged sustainably.
It seems most of us recognize that we are still in a place where prioritizing sustainable packaging is going to mean paying a little more for food or products. And while we don’t necessarily want to pay more, 63% of us are willing to do it.
Again, younger people are willing to dig deeper into their pockets, with more than half saying they’d pay an additional 25% or more for sustainably packaged products and food.
67% of 18- to 34-year-olds are willing to make at least moderate changes to their habits or lifestyles to make room for food or products with sustainable packaging.
While driving farther or paying more can feel like quite a change, they are small compared to asking someone to change their habits in the name of sustainability, and this is where we saw some of the biggest differences between younger and older respondents.
A fairly impressive 50% of respondents 35 and older said they’d be willing to make at least moderate changes to their habits or lifestyles in the name of sustainability, nearly 70% of 18- to 34-year-old respondents said the same thing, an almost 20% difference.
More than half of 18- to 34-year-olds say the sustainable shopping habits of their friends and family influence their own shopping decisions.
For younger people who are specifically concerned about sustainability and sustainable packaging, the example they’re setting with their purchasing decisions may be having more of an effect on their peers than they realize.
Fifty-three percent of 18- to 34-year-old respondents said that the shopping habits of their friends and family either moderately or greatly influence their own shopping decisions. Just 29% of those 35 and over said the same thing.