Investigating students' attitude and intention to use biodegradable drinking straw in emerging country / Juliana Mohd Abdul Kadir, Nadia Nurul Najwa Mohmad Hassan and Noreen Noor Abd Aziz

Plastic drinking straw is widely use for drinking water and has been very important for society as an effective way in a restaurant and other service businesses. However, excessive use leads to large amount of plastic waste that would harm the environment. Plastic waste pose serious environmental pollutions, economically disadvantages and health problems in humans and animals. Therefore, the government has taken its first step to ban the usage of plastic straw in Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya and Labuan in 2019. The government has strategies to campaign over society the drawbacks of using plastic straw. It was suggested to not use plastic straw or can choose biodegradable drinking straw as alternative to safe the environment. Efforts to design the best strategy is worth if environmental knowledge and awareness with regards to the plastic consumption among society are high. The research involves the following questions: (i) Does students’ attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control effect students’ intention? A total of 242 participants aged between 18 to 24 years participated in the survey via systematic random sampling technique. The findings revealed that students’ attitudes, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a significant influence on students’ favorable attitudes toward biodegradable drinking straw. The outcome of this research would be a guideline for both scholars and policymakers to plan for further strategies with regards to the consumption of biodegradable straw. Furthermore, this study contributes to theory by providing empirical evidence of the relationship between attitudes toward the environment, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral controls on intentions to explain young educated consumer’s behavior to use biodegradable drinking straw.