The Innovative Swap System - A contingent valuation study on joining a swap system with sustainable cups

Abstract

Although awareness of the problems caused by disposables is increasing, it is not well known that recycling of paper cups is difficult. Consequently, billions of cups end up in landfills every year. In light of this, our study aims to investigate the attitudes and specifically willingness to pay for joining a cup-swap system that could be a sustainable alternative to paper cups. Furthermore, the willingness to pay for sustainable cups made from 50% coffee waste is studied. This was done using the Contingent Valuation Method. The results show that people are willing to pay 69 SEK to join the swap system, and additionally 24 SEK if the cups are made from a sustainable resource. The attitude factors that impact the willingness to pay are the following: importance of reducing disposable cups and greenhouse gases, importance of convenience and whether they dislike the cup having been used by someone else. Furthermore, women are generally found to have a higher willingness to pay. Our results also show that non-Swedes are more favourable towards sustainable cups, but their willingness to pay is lower for the swap system compared to Swedes.