Abstract

Shopping bags are a symbol of the throw-away society, its deliberation on eco-impact is reasonably high compared to other products. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is used to throw light on the eco-impact of non-woven and woven bags. Life Cycle Assessment comprises of different stages of a product, from its manufacturing phase to end-of-life phase. Government and consumers are accountable primarily for the end of life phase covering reuse, recycle and disposal to landfill. The consumer plays a vital role here in terms of opting between the usage and disposal criteria which alleviates eco-impact and also the government assumes significant importance in providing the appropriate recycling strategies and policies. In this research work, an attempt has been made to elicit the consumer’s attitude towards reuse, recycle and disposal to landfill options and to elucidate the existing governmental policies on recycling as well as willingness of people to support them by means of a research questionnaire survey conducted in China, Hong Kong and India, amongst different user groups of various shopping bags.

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