The Last Straw: Consumers Are Concerned About Plastic, and Small Changes From Big Brands Aren’t Enough

This is a year-round phenomenon

Consumers aren’t waiting for World Earth Day or other similar international celebrations to make their voices heard around plastic, even though this tends to be when the verified accounts seem to tweet about it most.

The highest peak in plastic conversation in the whole of 2018 was nothing to do with World Earth Day.

There are many aspects of anti-plastic arguments, but conversation around almost all of them grew over the year.

Here’s how these topics manifested themselves within plastic conversations across 2016, 2017, and 2018.

Taking action, big and small

Companies like Starbucks and McDonald’s pledged to ban plastic straws from their stores in 2018.

These moves may have received praise initially but it was soon revealed that plastic straws aren’t exactly the worst thing plaguing our oceans (making up just 0.03% of all ocean plastic waste).

Clearly, bigger changes need to be made, and consumers are actively saying it’s not enough. But how can brands begin to go about making changes that’ll make the biggest impact with consumers?

Social listening is one way to break down exactly what consumer concerns are in order to prioritize what changes need to be made.

Clearly, plastic packaging is a concern. Brands can break down conversation around their products and plastic to see exactly what language consumers are using to voice their concerns, which can be helpful both for making the changes themselves and then communicating them.

Here’s an example. Our data shows that words relating to pollution are most strongly associated with this food and beverage brand when it comes to plastic waste, while “sustainability” and “ocean” are more commonly used than “environment.”