Purchase Intentions for Brazilian Recycled PET Products—Circular Economy Opportunities

Abstract

Circular economy involves structural changes in traditional business models and consumers’ behavior toward recycled products. The recycling of PET products is increasing but there is still a gap between consumption and demand for PET packaging in Brazil. In this research, waste reduction was examined under a projective scenario to the current ecological purposes in Brazil for reducing environmental pollution. In that manner, this paper aimed to comprehend the intention to purchase recycled PET products of Brazilian consumers. With a non-probabilistic and convenience sample, the study counts 422 participants. The method employed was based on structural equation modelling and partial least Squares, used to test the hypotheses of causality among the variables. Results showed the perception of low quality about recycled products reduced consumers’ intention to purchase. Additionally, the sustainability of recycled products positively influenced the intention to purchase. In addition, recycled products presented a negative impact on the perceived safety, which could influence the purchase of recycled products in Brazil. We conclude that the image that Brazilian consumers have about recycled products positively affects the intention to purchase.

Keywords

• recycled PET products
• circular economy
• intention to purchase