How environmental goals influence consumer willingness-to-pay for a plastic tax: a discrete-choice analytical study

Damage from petrochemical plastics is not only a problem for the environment, but also for human health. Damage reduction is often based on consumption avoidance by making harmful products more expensive, e.g. through emission taxes for producers. This rather regulates future damage. A consumption-independent tax for citizens, on the other hand, is rare, but could be used to remedy past environmental damage. Whether and how high such a private income tax should be and what regulatory objectives it should pursue was investigated in a quasi-experimental study of 456 German households. The majority of 73%, especially women and younger people, accepted the tax, and this was initially independent of environmental awareness and own plastic avoidance efforts. Only 20% of respondents would initially favour higher taxes to be used for oil-resource preservation, followed by 30% for damage control to humans only, and this was positively associated with environmental awareness. At 37%, most people wanted to remedy damages to human and eco-capital simultaneously, which also generated the maximum tax revenues at 13% rate. Consequently, an effective levy should increasingly consider social factors of the taxed and announce for what revenues are used. This achieves maximum acceptance for better protection of environmental and human capital. The results can guide the design of a future EU plastic tax.