Identifying key factors of sustainable consumption: a case on coffee consumers’ WTA and WTP for oat-cups instead of one-time use cups

The mass consumption of one-time use (OUT) cups in the coffee industry is leading to long-term environmental impacts and resource depletion. However, few existing studies have explored coffee consumers’ willingness to accept (WTA) and pay (WTP) for biodegradable cups on a deeper level, especially through the contingent valuation method (CVM). In order to better guide coffee consumers to reduce plastic pollution, this study applies binary logistic regression analysis and the CVM to explore the psychological processes for driving behavioral change towards degradable cups (oat-cups). The 424 valid questionnaires were collected from coffee consumers in Macao. Among them, coffee consumers in Macao had high mean values for “environmental concern”, “environmental emotion”, and “perceived behavioral control”. Regarding the use of oat-cups, respondents’ concerns were dominated by safety (81.60%), environmental protection (76.95%), and flavor (69.34%). Overall, more than 90% of the respondents are willing to make positive behavioral changes to reduce environmental pollution. It can be seen that the respondents’ WTA and WTP for oat-cups instead of OUT cups are 89.86% and 84.67%, respectively. The respondents’ WTA is related to their education levels, attitude, and environmental concerns (significant at the 1% level). While the respondents’ WTP for oat-cups has a significant correlation with their gender, attitude, environmental concerns, and perceived behavioral control (significant at the 1% level). Simultaneously, the mean WTP value of coffee consumers for oat cups are 6.30 MOP/cup. The results obtained in this study provide some effective suggestions for improving sustainable consumption in the coffee industry.