Zero Waste Shopping as a Consumer Behavior: The Case of North Cyprus (TRNC)

Waste mismanagement has been in a rise since the era of civilization began. This increase has been due to the increase in population and standards of living in communities, rapid growth of the urban areas and economic boom. An estimated 547,000 tons of municipal waste was recorded in Cyprus in 2017, which was a 0.36% increase from 2016. Such statistics leads the consumers into performing actions aimed at protecting or preserving the environment such as recycling the products or repurchasing eco-labelled products. In line with the issue of global waste and consumers having a growing intention to for positive environmental actions, this has led to the concept of zero-waste lifestyle being introduced to address the problem. The primary aim of this paper was to empirically establish which factors influence zero waste shopping in North Cyprus. This study investigated how factors of behavior influence zero-waste shopping. The was carried out using a quantitative research approach. The survey was conducted through the use of a questionnaire administered amongst 300 consumers. A convenience sampling approach was utilised in data collection process. A path analysis using PLS-SEM was conducted to test the proposed hypothesis. The results of the analysis showed that three of the seven hypothesis were accepted. Attitude and moral norms were found to influence consumers’ zero-waste shopping intention in TRNC; and intention was found to influence consumers’ zero-waste shopping behavior in TRNC. On the other hand, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, self-identity and past behavior were rejected as factors that influence consumers’ zero-waste shopping intention in TRNC