Investigation Report on Consumers’ Awareness of rPET in China, 2022

In February 2023, Mars Wrigley China announced to use 100% recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) materials for the production of canister lid of a chocolate brand named Cui Xiang Mi. According to Mars, the replacement of traditional plastics with rPET will save 36 tons of virgin plastics annually. Along with the increasing awareness of environmental protection in China, such campaigns¹ can absolutely gain brand reputation among consumers and meet China’s “carbon peak & carbon neutrality” goals² (also called dual carbon goals). But to what extent has Chinese consumers’ environmental protection awareness been increased, especially when it comes to the food industry?

Due to the wide use and high recycling potential of PET in the food & beverage sector, the Investigation Report on Consumers’ Awareness of rPET in China, 2022³ released by China Food Information Center (CFIC) is a good resource for stakeholders to understand consumers’ attitude toward plastic packaging in China. For example, how's consumers' interest in buying products produced with rPET? Can consumers accept rPET for food contact use?

To solve these questions, CFIC investigated 5,224 people from 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities. Here are the key investigation results.

• Consumers’ environmental protection awareness

Around 80% of respondents have heard of and cared about China’s dual carbon goals. Among them, people aged between 50 to 59 years old care about dual carbon goals the most, followed by the group aged 30-39 years old. Moreover, people with higher incomes and more educated pay more attention to the dual carbon goals.

• How to deal with empty plastic beverage bottles?

In daily life, 60.22% of respondents sell empty plastic bottles for scrap and 24.87% choose to discard the bottles. It is worth mentioning that 13.17% of respondents reuse empty plastic beverage bottles.

The report also unveils that people with higher education backgrounds tend to tick “Discard”, who may think bottles will be recycled during the waste classification.

• Consumers' awareness of plastic reduction: Acceptance of thinner plastic beverage bottles and recycled plastic beverage bottles

Besides reusing plastic bottles, reducing plastic usage amount in the bottles, recycling the bottles, and replacing plastics with degradable plastics also contribute to environmental protection. Among all respondents, 76.99% accept thinner plastic beverage bottles.

75.69% accept beverage bottles made from recycled plastic beverage bottles (bottle-to-bottle recycling). Young people are more open to recycled plastic beverage bottles.

• Consumer awareness toward rPET for food contact use

Compared to respondents who cannot accept bottle-to-bottle recycling (24.31%), 29.98% of respondents cannot accept rPET for food contact use. Their attitudes towards these two questions are similar, only with a deviation of around 5%. The industry can pay more attention to respondents who hold a neutral attitude toward rPET for food contact use (14.87%) and do customer education.

90.14% of respondents are concerned about the safety of rPET, followed by sustainability, use experience, appearance, and price.

If analyzed by different ages, people of 19-29 years old care more about price and use experience but less about sustainability. People aged 19-39 care more about whether the product is with pleasant tactile and visual appeal (appearance). People aged over 30 years old care more about safety.

The report concluded that Chinese consumers’ acceptance of rPET is higher than the industry’s expectation, but it may be associated with the low level of rPET knowledge. Since consumers haven't formed a mature cognition of rPET, it is a chance for the industry to strengthen science popularization, educate customers and raise their awareness and acceptance of rPET.