Optimizing environmental awareness interventions for reducing single-use plastic tableware: a network-based policy design framework

Purpose The widespread use of Single-Use Plastic Tableware (SUPT) poses significant environmental and health risks, highlighting the need for more effective and efficiently designed policy interventions. This study examines whether targeted awareness strategies can improve reusable-tableware adoption compared with uniform, population-wide interventions. Design/methodology/approach An evolutionary simulation integrating an extended Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) framework with four theoretical social-network structures was developed. Three intervention models delivering comparable overall effort were compared: a baseline uniform intervention, a static targeted intervention, and a sequential (variable) targeted intervention. Adoption dynamics, equilibrium levels, and convergence speed were evaluated across network configurations. Findings The uniform full-population intervention resulted in 83.1% reusable-tableware adoption at equilibrium. In contrast, the sequential targeted strategy, which targeted only 80% of the population, increased adoption to 91.9% while reaching equilibrium substantially faster and maintaining comparable overall intervention effort. Sequential targeting generally outperformed alternative strategies across network structures, although its effectiveness varied with network configuration. Research limitations/implications The findings are based on a simulation incorporating empirically calibrated behavioral parameters and theoretical social-network structures rather than direct empirical field testing. Future research should validate the framework using observed campaign data and examine its applicability across different environmental behaviors, cultural settings, and policy contexts. Practical implications Environmental managers can improve campaign efficiency by allocating awareness resources sequentially to behaviorally distinct consumer segments rather than uniformly across the population. Sequential intervention sequencing may accelerate behavioral diffusion while reducing the resources required to achieve high adoption levels. Originality/value This study integrates behavioral theory, intervention sequencing, and social-network diffusion to compare static and sequential (variable) targeting strategies. It demonstrates how sequential resource allocation can provide a decision-support framework for designing more efficient awareness-based environmental policies.