Trap, Jesse (2026) Emerging Adults' Negotiation of their Personal and Structural Responsibility in relation to E-commerce-related Plastic Waste. Bachelor thesis, Global Responsibility & Leadership (GRL).
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Abstract
Plastic packaging waste generated by E-commerce is a growing environmental problem. Addressing the problem requires actors to be responsible for harmful consequences, and this responsibility is often placed on the individual consumer. This study examines how emerging adults in the Netherlands negotiate personal and structural responsibility for plastic waste in their everyday lives, with a focus on plastic waste generated through online shopping. Using a qualitative research approach, fourteen interviews were conducted, preceding a two-week diary method in which E-commerce experiences were documented. Five thematic groups were found: Plastic Framing, Normalisation and Awareness, Intention Barriers, Affective and Behavioural Response, and Responsibility. The findings show participants accepting responsibility for the correct disposal of packaging waste, while rejecting responsibility for the existence and quantity of the packaging, placing the responsibility on upstream actors, who hold the power to make decisions over the packaging. The participants' negotiation of their responsibility was shaped by structural barriers, which include convenience, price, and a virtually complete absence of consumer choice over packaging in E-commerce. Three theoretical frameworks, the value-action gap (Barr, 2002), the structural debate on responsibility (Evans et al., 2017; Waite, 2025), and moral disengagement (Bandura, 1999), show that the gap between participants values and their actual behaviour is not a product of them feeling indifferent towards the consequences of their actions, yet they show structural conditions that constrain consumer actions. The study concludes that framing the consumer as primarily responsible for the generation of plastic waste through E-commerce is inaccurate and counterproductive from the perspective of the individual consumer, and responsibility should be redistributed across different actors.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Name supervisor: | Koning, N. |
| Date Deposited: | 10 Jun 2026 11:00 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Jun 2026 11:00 |
| URI: | https://campus-fryslan.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/803 |
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