The last few decades have seen an explosion in population growth and along with this growth we have also witnessed an increase in demand for products. Although our resources are limited, consumers' needs know no bounds. It is not surprising that we are also increasingly demanding more from our environment. It is therefore imperative that we make better use of our resources and reassess how we construe a product's lifecycle. Instead of a linear perspective, which typically follows a product's lifecycle from mining of raw materials to manufacturing, but then stops when products are trashed, we need to use a circular perspective, where we focus on the entire lifecycle of products, from not just manufacturing to usage, but also from usage to creation of new products through recycling. The focus of this dissertation is on understanding two important processes in the circular economy: that of usage and disposal. I focus on the role that consumers' product valuations play in these processes. In essay 1, I show that consumers value products made from recycled materials more than comparable regular products. I also document why this happens and demonstrate how this affects usage. In essay 2, I investigate the relationship between reuse and product disposal. The circular economy is based on what is now referred to as the 3R approach: reduce, reuse, and recycle. However, I show that consumers are more (vs. less) likely to trash products that they have used extensively (vs. rarely). This then leads to a conundrum: if we encourage consumers to reuse products extensively, it appears that they are more likely to trash them. It is therefore imperative that we understand this relationship better and find interventions to mitigate this negative relationship. / Doctor of Philosophy / The last few decades have seen an explosion in population growth and along with this growth we have also witnessed an increase in demand for products. To create a more sustainable world, it is imperative that we move towards a more circular economy, where we not only minimize waste, but also find ways to extract more use from our resources. One way to do this is to find ways to reuse products after they have reached the end of their lifecycle. The focus of this dissertation is on understanding two important processes in the circular economy: that of usage and disposal (essentially addressing questions about what to do with products that we no longer have a need for). I primarily focus on the role that consumers' product valuations play in influencing these processes.
In essay 1, I study how consumers feel about products made from recycled materials. I find that consumers are willing to pay more for products made from recycled materials compared with products made from regular raw materials. The higher willingness to pay emerges because consumers value the process that transforms the recycled materials into brand new products. I also show that this valuation impacts use: consumers use products made from recycled materials more judiciously.
In essay 2, I investigate the relationship between product usage and disposal. I find that when consumers use a product more extensively, they are more likely to trash the product compared with other forms of reuse, such as, disposing in the recycling bin, giving it to others, or reselling it. This effect emerges because when consumers use a product more frequently, they believe that the product has less value remaining for others, and a product that confers lower value to others should be trashed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115227 |
| Date | 26 May 2023 |
| Creators | Lai, Yuhang |
| Contributors | Marketing, Bagchi, Rajesh, Chakravarti, Dipankar, May, Frank Dominick, Pandelaere, Mario |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
| Rights | Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
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