Reducing People’s Use of Disposable Cups When Buying Handmade Drinks in Taiwan.

Yen-Chi Chen 2017

Abstract Taiwanese boasts the invention of boba tea, which sees its popularity around the globe. As people enjoy taking out a cup of tea every day, they form the Handmade Drink Culture. Taiwan thus claims the highest density of tea shops in the world, or about 3.5 tea shops per 10,000 people1. In comparison, the number in the United States is about 0.9 coffee shops per 10,000 people2. With love for freshly made drinks, we celebrate Taiwan as the land of handmade drink. However, what makes us proud ought also to concern us right now. High popularity of handmade drinks has led to huge consumptions of disposable cups, posing a threat to the environment. The government has launched policies to encourage people to use less plastic and paper cups, but with only limited success. More actions need to be done. This research thus aims at finding the factors that make people bring reusable cups when buying handmade drinks and putting the factors into practice to actually change people’s behaviors. This research paper will delineate a policy and a business model that has significant potentials to reduce people’s use of disposable cups.

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Acknowledgement This research started simply with a problem observed in my everyday life, and was carried out mostly in my room and with my laptop. However, the research would have never been finished if it had not been for the support and assistance from the people around me. I am deeply grateful that my teacher, Tse-Ming Chang, had given me instructions and advice throughout the process of designing this research. I am delightedly appreciative to my friends on debate team, Yi-Xian Huang, Pei-Jun Chen, Yu-Tung Lin, and HsingChen Yang. They helped me distribute the questionnaires for pilot test on one Sunday afternoon, when we spent hours walking around and trying to find people to take the survey outside the department stores. Also, I thank my family, my classmates, and my teacher for sharing the online questionnaire of formal test for me. With their help, I was able to collect a data with over 500 responses. Finally, I owe my gratitude to Dr. Wen-Ti Sung, who helped reviewing my paper and pointing out the details that needed further elaboration. I really appreciate their help. Without all these awesome people, this paper would never be possible.

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Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................... ii Chapter 1, Introduction 1.1 Research Motivations ........................................................................................... 1 1.2 Research Timeline .............................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2, Literature Review 2.1 Handmade Drinks Culture in Taiwan .................................................................... 3 2.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................... 3 2.2.1 Handmade Drinks Industry ......................................................................... 3 2.2.2 Number of Cups Disposed .......................................................................... 4 2.2.3 Existing Research ........................................................................................ 4 Chapter 3, Methodology 3.1 Analysis of Handmade Drink Consumer ............................................................. 5 3.1.1 Objectives .................................................................................................... 5 3.1.2 Hypotheses and Pilot Test .......................................................................... 6 3.1.3 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................... 8 3.1.4 Regression Test ......................................................................................... 10 3.2 Evaluation of Revised Policies .......................................................................... 11 3.2.1 Objectives .................................................................................................. 11 3.2.2 Pilot Test ................................................................................................... 11 3.2.3 Descriptive Statistics ................................................................................. 12 3.2.4 Hypotheses and T Tests ............................................................................ 13 3.3 Evaluation of Business Model .......................................................................... 14 3.3.1 Objectives .................................................................................................. 14 3.3.2 Designing the Business Model .................................................................. 14 3.3.3 Results of the Survey ................................................................................ 16 Chapter 4, Conclusions and Discussions 4.1 Conclusions ....................................................................................................... 19 4.2 Discussions ....................................................................................................... 19 4.2.1 Gap between Intentions and Actions ....................................................... 19 4.2.2 Other Factors Concerning the Feasibility ................................................. 20 References ................................................................................................................. 21 iii

Chapter 1, Introduction 1.1 Research Motivations About one year ago, I learned about the negative effects that disposable cups pose to the environment. In a debate competition in the summer of 2016, we discussed whether Taiwan should prohibit the use of all the disposable tableware, including chopsticks, spoons, plates, cups, and so on. We talked about the so-called ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ that was as big as the continent of Africa, the insufficiency of landfill spaces in Taiwan, and the staggering amounts of disposable tableware we use every year. These problems need to be solved, but effective solutions are still yet to be found. Those problems are real to me, as I can easily observe them in my daily life. As a senior high school student, I heard my classmates talking about how handmade drinks kept them awake in the evening classes in cram schools, and how they had grown dependent to the caffeine. Most of them went to cram schools about three times a week, so each of them would throw away twelve plastic cups per month, along with twelve straws and twelve plastic bags (see as the pictures below). I said that under the government’s policy, bringing their own reusable cups would save them money and save the environment. But, my classmates said they just hadn’t got into the habit of doing so. This didn’t sound good to the environment, and didn’t sound good to me. So, I set out to find a solution.

Pictures: buying a cup of handmade drink usually means using a straw, a plastic cup, and a plastic bag345.

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1.2 Research Timeline

2016 August

2016 November

2017 February

2017 May

2017 June

2017 October

2017

• Problems observed • Topic nailed down • Learn basic SPSS analyses • Collect literature works • Decide research structure • Design the questionnaire • Pilot test (May 27th) • Revise the questionnaire • Formal test (from June 15th to 30th) • Conclude the results of analysis

• (Interview handmade drinks sellers)

December

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Chapter 2, Literature Review

2.1 Handmade Drinks Culture in Taiwan Taiwan has the highest density of tea shops in the world, due to people’s love for handmade drinks which can be traced back to the 1970s. Back in those days, black tea became popular on the island, and tea shops started popping up around the island. In 1980s, boba tea, also known as simply “boba” or “pearls milk tea”, was invented and became a sensation among Taiwanese people. At the same time, the sealing machine was invented, which allowed people to take out their drinks without spilling them on the roads6. The two inventions further boosted the handmade drink market in Taiwan. Gradually, the handmade drink culture has been formed in Taiwan, and people are used to lining up in front of a tea shop when they get thirsty nowadays.

2.2 Literature Review 2.2.1 Handmade Drinks Industry According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), there are more than 20,000 drinks and coffee shops in Taiwan in 2016. In the same year, Taiwanese people spent NT$49.1 billion (US$1.63 billion) on handmade drinks, which was a 3.9 percent increase from a year earlier. The MOEA also said the sector was expected to further expand in 2017, suggesting that the handmade drinks industry is booming in Taiwan7. And according to a survey by EOLembrain Corporation Limited in April 2017, Taiwanese people drink 7.05 cups of handmade drinks per month on average8. Also, the survey asked participants if they had bought beverages from a list of handmade drink sellers within the last six months, and the top four sellers answered by the participants were Wushi Land (54%), Ching Shin (31%), Co Co (31%), and TP-Tea (28%). These four sellers will take a part in my proposed business model in Chapter 3.

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2.2.2 Number of Cups Disposed Each year, an estimated 150 million disposable cups are thrown away in Taiwan according to Environmental Protection Administration9. If divided by the number of population, the number shows that more than 65 cups per person are disposed every year. The average weight of a plastic cup is 7 grams, and so each Taiwanese person annually disposes 455 grams of plastic, which equals to 27 cellphone cases. No matter it is throwing 65 cups or 27 phone cases per person a year, it is a waste of natural resources and needs to be cut down. 2.2.3 Existing Research In the thesis Factoring Affecting College Students’ Intention to Bring Reusable Cups for Buying Take-out Beverages (Shuo-Yi Wei, 2012)10, the researcher concluded that “benefits” and “costs” had statistically significant influence on consumers’ intention to bring reusable cups. In the thesis Using the Questionnaire to Explore out The Feasible Project Accepted by Consumers for Replacing the Disposal Dinner Set (Chang–Hsin Pan, 2004)11, the researcher found three policies that are accepted by consumers while encouraging the usage of reusable tableware: charging an extra $5 NTDs for a disposable lunch box, charging an extra $2-4 NTDs for a disposable cup, or giving an extra 20-25 percent of the drink to the consumer who bring reusable cups. These are the conclusions I can refer to when designing the questionnaire.

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Chapter 3, Methodology My research can be divided into three parts. The first part is an analysis of handmade drinks consumers, in which I try to identify factors attributing to the consumers’ decision in bringing reusable cups. The second part is an evaluation of revised policies, in which I survey the possible outcomes if adjustments are made to the policies on using reusable cups. The third part is an evaluation of a business model that I designed, to see if the model can be effective in incentivizing consumers to bring their own cups. The data for the three parts of research were collected with the same questionnaire, instead of distributing three questionnaires respectively. That way, data collection could be more efficient, and the responses could be more consistent because I surveyed on the same group of people. Nevertheless, the survey should contain no suggestive or leading questions, or the participants might not answer with their actual views. To avoid that, I put the questions of the business model in the last section of the Google forms. Participants would start the business model section only after they had finished the other two sections, so their answers in the first two parts were not affected by the business model. At first, I decided not to distribute the questionnaire online, since many materials read that posting questionnaires on social medias would limit the respondents to the certain groups the researcher belonged to. But I shifted the questionnaire from paper form to online form after the pilot test. The shift was suggested by a participant when we were handling out paper questionnaires outside a movie theater. He said that my sampling might as well be limited to the group of people who went to movie theaters on holidays; if I shared a questionnaire online, I would reach participants from more diverse backgrounds. Therefore, I chose to use Google forms to create a questionnaire and find my parents, my friends, and my teacher to share them on social media.

3.1 Analysis of Handmade Drinks Consumers 3.1.1 Objectives In this part, I want to find factors that make people bring their reusable cups when buying handmade drinks. In the thesis Factoring Affecting College Students’ 5

Intention to Bring Reusable Cups for Buying Take-out Beverages (Shuo-Yi Wei, 2012), the researcher derived constructs of factors from several focus group interviews, and then used a hierarchical regression test to conclude that “benefits” and “costs” had statistically significant influence on consumers’ intention to bring reusable cups. The research was focused only on intention, while it quoted from Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) that behaviors are closely related with intention. So, there may be factors, other than benefits and costs, that ultimately determine whether people actually bring their own cups to buy handmade drinks. To find those factors and to confirm the “benefits” and “costs” factors, I survey on people’s purchase habit in addition to their cognition on the benefits and costs of bringing reusable cups. 3.1.2 Hypotheses and Pilot Test

I designed the first part of the questionnaire based on these hypotheses, and used Cronbach’s alpha* to examine the internal consistency of questions in the pilot test. The structure of the first part of questionnaire and the results of reliability test are shown in the following table:

*

Cronbach’s alpha is a measure of reliability, specifically internal consistency reliability or item interrelatedness, of a scale or test (e.g., questionnaire). Internal consistency refers to the extent that all items on a scale or test contribute positively towards measuring the same construct.12 6

Factor

Cronbach's α

Num. Questions 4

Consumers’ 5 Purchase 6 7 Patterns 7-1

if Item Deleted

The average frequency of my purchase

.267

The average price of my purchase

.356

The average size of drinks I purchase

.451

(Answer from Never to Always) I buy iced drinks.

.270

I add pearls or jelly to my drink.

.476

I buy handmade drinks on a regular basis

.271

7-5

I use the straws when I use my own reusable cup.

.474

8

(Answer from Strongly Disagree to Strongly Agree) I understand that, in most handmade drinks shops, bringing my own cup can save me 1-2 NTDs.

(Cronbach’s 7-2 α = .413) 7-3

8-1 8-2

I think using plastic cups is harmful to the environment.

.631 .604

Benefits 8-3 (Cronbach’s α = .655) 8-4

I think using paper cups is harmful to the environment.

8-5

I think using reusable cups is economical.

.568

8-6

I think reusable cups have better looks than deposable cups.

.608

Costs

8-7 8-8

I think using reusable cups better keeps the drink hot/iced.

.636 .627

I think that reusables cups are conveniently portable. (Cronbach’s alpha = .794) It is convenient for me to clean reusable cups.

For the factor Consumers’ Purchase Patterns, the alpha value is pretty low. To get higher reliability in the formal test, I only keep questions 4, 5, and 7-1, for which the alpha value becomes .684. For factor Benefits, the alpha value is less than .7 and indicates a “questionable” consistency. But, as deleting any of the questions would not increase the alpha value, I keep all of questions and combine question 8-2 and 8-3 into the same question, “I think using disposable cups will do harm to the environment.” For the factor Costs, the alpha value is more than .7 and is very close to .8, indicating an “acceptable” consistency. So, I make no changes to these questions.

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3.1.3 Descriptive Statistics In the formal test, the responses in the first part are compiled as the following.

Num. of Responses responses

Num. Question

3

I bring my own reusable cup when buying handmade drinks. 1 (Never) 2 (Seldom) 3 (Sometimes) 4 (Frequently) 5 (Always) Total

393 93

69.9% 16.5%

60 7 12

10.6% 1.2% 2.1%

M = 1.50 SD = .891

Most of the people “never” bring reusable cups when buying handmade drinks, which is the major problem this research aims to solve.

Habits of buying handmade drinks Num. of Responses responses

Num. Question 1

The average frequency of my purchase. Over 2 cups per day 1 cup per day 4-6 cups per week 1-3 cups per week 2-3 cups per month No higher than 1 cup per month

2

M = 4.22 SD = 1.350 15 2.7% 69 12.2% 60 10.6% 160 28.3% 153 109

The average price of my purchase. No higher than 30 NTD (about 1 USD) 31-60 NTD (1-2 USD) 61-90 NTD (2-3 USD) 91-120 NTD (3-4 USD) 121 NTD or above (4 USD or above)

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27% 19.3%

M = 1.79 SD = .513 145 25.7% 394 69.9% 24 4.3% 1 0.2% 0 0%

I buy handmade drinks on a regular basis (For example, buying one after work every day). 1 (Never) 2 (Seldom) 3 (Sometimes) 4 (Frequently) 5 (Always)

4

M = 1.91 SD = 1.143 274 157 73 28 31

48.7% 27.9% 13% 5% 5.5%

In question 1, people who buy 1-3 or less cups per week account for 74.6% of consumers. In question 2, almost everyone (95.6%) buy handmade drinks at a price less than $60 NTD, which may be considered when deciding for the business model how much discounts should be given to consumers that bring reusable cups. Also, in question 3, about 76.6% of all the people buy handmade drinks not on a regular basis.

Cognitions on benefits and costs of reusable cups. Answered from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree) Factor

Benefits

Costs

Num. Question

Mean

Standard Deviation

5

I understand that, in most handmade drinks shops, bringing my own cup can save me $1-2 NTDs.

4.45

.971

6

Using disposable cups will do harm to the environment.

4.52

.847

7

Using reusable cups better keeps the drink hot/iced.

3.71

1.140

8

Using reusable cups is economical.

4.20

1.019

9

Reusable cups look better than deposable cups.

3.71

1.140

Total

4.23

.686

10

I think that reusables cups are convenient and portable.

3.38

1.301

11

It is convenient for me to clean reusable cups.

3.34

1.321

Total

3.36

1.217

While most people never bring reusable cups when buying handmade drinks, we can see from question 5 that most of them were aware of the policy which encourages them to bring one (with $1-2 NTDs of discount). This phenomenon suggests that the current policies have not provided enough incentives for people 9

to change their behaviors and stop using disposable cups. On the other hand, people mostly agree with the benefits of using reusable cups listed in the questionnaire, while holding divergent opinions to the costs of using reusable cups.

3.1.4 Regression Test Originally, this part of questions was designed for a regression test to see if the results would correspond to that in Shuo-Yi Wei’s findings. However, when I test the normality of residuals in my regression, it shows the following: Tests of Normality Kolmogorov-Smirnova Statistic

df

Shapiro-Wilk

Sig.

Statistic

df

Sig.

Unstandardized Residual

.242

552

.000

.773

552

.000

Standardized Residual

.242

552

.000

.773

552

.000

a.

Lilliefors Significance Correction

(Never)

(Always) I bring my own reusable cup

The P value in both Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Shapiro-Wilk test are less than .05. Therefore, the residuals are not normally distributed and are not suitable for regression tests. The three hypotheses in this part (H1, H2, and H3) are yet to be confirmed with other ways of analysis. 10

3.2 Evaluation of Revised Policies 3.2.1 Objectives In this part, I want to see the possible outcomes if adjustments are made to the current policy. In the thesis Using the Questionnaire to Explore out The Feasible Project Accepted by Consumers for Replacing the Disposal Dinner Set (Chang–Hsin Pan, 2004), one of the suggested ways to decrease the use of disposable tableware is charging an extra $2-4 NTDs for a disposable cup. I raised the number and surveyed on the policies that charge $5 and $10 NTDs. Meanwhile, I want to check if the policies of perceived “punishments” on consumers will lessen their tendency to make purchases, to see how the sales of handmade drinks may be affected under those new policies. In other words, I wish to test whether a punishment-oriented incentive (extra charge for failing to bring one’s own reusable cup) may be more effective than a reward-oriented incentive (discount for bringing one’s own reusable cup) in getting people to bring reusable cups.

3.2.2 Pilot Test When I was designing the questionnaire, I first put the questions in the following order: Num. Content of question 9-1 9-2 9-3

With extra 5 NTD on deposable cups, will people bring reusable cups? With extra 5 NTD on deposable cups, will people buy drinks less often? With extra 10 NTD on deposable cups, will people bring reusable cups?

9-4

With extra 10 NTD on deposable cups, will people buy drinks less often?

I made the questions focused on two sets of policies with different amount of extra fee, and surveyed on their possible outcomes. But, my teacher suggested that people think in a different order; they tend to focus on a final conclusion, or action, before deciding how much cost would lead them to the certain conclusion. After discussing with my teacher, I changed the order of the questions, and the results of the pilot test are shown as the following:

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Behavior Changes under New Policies Behavior Change

(Cronbach's α = .770) Cronbach's α

Num. Question

More likely 9-1 to bring reusable 9-2 cups

if Item Deleted

With extra 5 NTD on deposable cups, will people bring reusable cups?

.770

With extra 10 NTD on deposable cups, will people bring reusable cups?

.700

Less likely

9-3

.706

to make purchase

With extra 5 NTD on deposable cups, will people buy drinks less often?

9-4

With extra 10 NTD on deposable cups, will people buy drinks less often?

.674

The alpha value of all four questions is more than .7, while deleting any of the questions will not make the alpha value higher. So, I will keep all the questions in the formal test. 3.2.3 Descriptive Statistics The results of the formal test are shown as the following: Num. of Responses responses

Num. Question

14

I will lessen the frequency of my purchase if I have to pay an extra 5 NTD to use a deposable cup from drink shops. 1 (Strongly disagree) 2 (Disagree) 3 (Neither disagree nor agree) 4 (Agree)

29 43 132 146

5.1% 7.6% 23.3% 25.8%

5 (Strongly agree)

216

38.2%

Total 15

M = 3.84 SD =1.165

I will lessen the frequency of my purchase if I have to pay an extra 10 NTD to use a deposable cup from drink shops. 1 (Strongly disagree) 2 (Disagree) 3 (Neither disagree nor agree) 4 (Agree) 5 (Strongly agree) Total

25 36 83 97 324

4.4% 6.4% 14.7% 17.2% 57.3%

M = 4.16 SD =1.162 12

For question 14 and question 15, we can conclude that the “punishments” policies do reduce consumers’ willingness to buy handmade drinks, getting 64% and 74.5% of the consumers respectively to agree that they will lessen their frequency of purchases under the new policies. So, the “punishments” policies may result in a sales drop for tea shops.

Behavior Changes under New Policies Answered from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree) Num. Question

Mean

Standard Deviation

12

I will bring my own reusable cup if I have to pay an extra 5 NTD to use a deposable cup from drink shops.

4.03

1.118

13

I will bring my own reusable cup if I have to pay an extra 10 NTD to use a deposable cup from drink shops.

4.43

1.013

As for question 12 and question 13, the sample means are close to 4 (agree), and are way higher than the sample mean of question 3 (“I bring my own reusable cup when buying handmade drinks,” M = 1.50). By simply reviewing the numbers, we can nearly guess that the punishments policies effectively change consumers’ behavior into bringing reusable cups. To check the conclusions in a more careful way, I will employ the paired sample T tests.

3.2.4 Hypotheses and T Tests

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Paired Samples Test Paired Differences 95% Confidence Interval Std. Mean Deviation

Std. Error Mean

of the Difference Lower

Upper

Sig. (2t

df

tailed)

Pair 1 I bring my own – -2.528

1.344

.057

-2.640

-2.417 -44.686

563

.000

-2.936

1.227

.052

-3.038

-2.835 -56.791

562

.000

extra 5 NTDs Pair 2 I bring my own – extra 10 NTDs

In the both pairs, the P values are less than .05. So, we can reject the two null hypotheses, and conclude that both “punishments” policies have statistically significant influence on consumers’ behavior of bring reusable cups. 3.3 Evaluation of Business Model 3.3.1 Objectives In this part, I will analyze the effectiveness of a business model I designed with the instruction from my teacher. This research began with an aim to solve the problem I saw in real life; so, after doing statistical tests, I want to make it a solution in practice. With the goal of cutting down the use of disposable cups, there are generally two approaches: discourage the use of disposable cups, or encourage the use of reusable cups. For the first approach, a policy of “punishments” can be taken, as analyzed in Part 2 of Chapter 3. Punishments do discourage people from using disposable cups, but they might also discourage people from buying handmade drinks, which is a negative effect for tea shop owners. For the second approach, a policy of “rewards” can be implemented, as done by the current regulations. But, these rewards are not working quite well, as this survey find that most of the participants never bring their own reusable cups; also, the handmade drink sellers seem not to gain any benefits from this policy. Thus, the major goal of this business model is to make it a win-win for both the sellers and the consumers. 3.3.2 Designing the Business Model The concept of the business model is to create a brand and promote reusable cups, and is based on the presumption that the more benefits there are, the more likely consumers will use reusable cups. 14

In this model, some of the biggest sellers of handmade drinks in Taiwan will jointly produce a make of reusable cups, and will give consumers extra discounts if they bring that cup when buying drinks in their shops. For consumers, the design of the reusable cup will contain the “benefits” factor, and the extra discounts will serve as additional monetary incentives for them to bring reusable cups. As for the sellers, selling reusable cups will bring them profits in the first round; then the reputations they share may be boosted in the campaign, and more consumers may be attracted to their shops because of the extra discounts. One of the key components of the business model is the participance of the biggest sellers of handmade drinks in Taiwan (Wushi Land, Ching Shin, Co Co, and TP-Tea). This business model can be viewed as a kind of “membership program”, for which consumers first need to buy a reusable cup as a kind of “upfront commitment”. If consumers seldom buy beverages from the sellers that provide discounts for the reusable cup, they may not find it worthwhile to buy the reusable cup. So, to make consumers find it a good deal, the business model must be run by those big sellers of handmade drinks. In the ideal situation, sellers gain rewards for their promotion of reusable cups, consumers get discounts for their usage of reusable cups, and the environment gets better for the decreased usage of disposable cups. Logically, the business model works; practically, I want to evaluate its feasibility with the survey.

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3.3.3 Results of the Survey The questions are answered from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree), and responses are shown in the following charts: 16. If a “reusable cup” is produced in association with handmade drinks sellers, and its capacity fits the volume of handmade drinks, I will be willing to carry it with me.

17. If “the reusable cup” mentioned above is also made with trendy designs, I will be willing to carry it with me.

18. If “the reusable cup” mentioned above also serves as a thermos bottle, I will be willing to carry it with me.

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19. If “the reusable cup” mentioned above comes with a bag to make it easily portable, I will be willing to carry it with me.

20. If bringing “the reusable cup” when I buy drinks at Wushi Land, Co Co, Ching Shin, and TP-Tea takes 10% off my order, I will be willing to carry it with me.

21. If bringing “the reusable cup” when I buy drinks at Wushi Land, Co Co, Ching Shin, and TP-Tea takes 15% off my order, I will be willing to carry it with me.

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22. If bringing “the reusable cup” when I buy drinks at Wushi Land, Co Co, Ching Shin, and TP-Tea takes 20% off my order, I will be willing to carry it with me.

23. If I have brought “the reusable cup” with me, I will prefer going to the four shops that offer discounts for it.

It can be concluded from the charts that most people are willing to bring reusable cups in the business model, and prefer going to the shops that offer discounts as expected. This indicates that the business model has significant potentials to work and reduce people’s use of disposable cups.

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Chapter 4, Conclusions and Discussions 4.1 Conclusions In the first part: the analysis of handmade drinks consumers, my samples are not suitable for regression tests, and thus I cannot confirm the factors influencing consumers’ behaviors. Another way to confirm the factors is Confirmatory Factor Analysis, but the test is currently unavailable to me. Further researches are yet to be done in this part. In the second part: evaluation of revised policies, the paired T Tests suggest that the sample mean of people’s current behavior differs significantly from that of people’s expected behavior under policies of punishments. It indicates that charging extra fees for disposable cups effectively discourage people from using one. However, the policies also lessen people’s intention to buy handmade drinks. If legislators were thinking about implementing these policies, they would have to weigh the benefits to the environment and the loses to the handmade drink sellers. In the third part: evaluation of business model, the majority of participants in this survey are willing to carry the proposed reusable cups with them. Judging from the numbers, it can be concluded that it is possible that the business model can work.

4.1 Discussions 4.2.1 Gap between Intentions and Actions In the first part of the survey, the participants were asked how often do they bring reusable cups when buying handmade drinks in question 3, and they responded from 1 (never) to 5 (always):

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However, in the third part of the survey, when participants are asked whether they would be willing to carry a reusable cup with them if its capacity fit the volume of handmade drinks in question 16, they answered like this: (1 = Strongly disagree, 5 = Strongly agree)

It seems unbelievable that the mere capacity of reusable cups would do that much difference. The difference may partly be a result of the wording of the questions, since the participants answer their ultimate choice of “behavior” in question 3, while they only answer whether they are “willing” to bring reusable cups in question 16. The factors that lie behind this startling difference need further exploration. I conclude from the third part of the survey that the business model is “possibly” feasible for the same reason – there are still other factors in real life that influence peoples’ decision of whether they are bring reusable cups with them. 4.2.2 Other Factors Concerning the Feasibility of the Business Model From question 20 to question 22, I surveyed the participants’ willingness to bring reusable cups if various levels of monetary incentives were given, which were 10% off, 15% off, and 20% off respectively. However, I am not sure whether the handmade drink sellers can actually afford the discounts. So, I may try to interview some sellers to better evaluate the feasibility of the proposed business model. 20

References 1 Drink

Millions of Business Sales, Taiwanese Handmade Drinks Expand into International Markets. Yun Ying Tseng, 2015. Watchinese Magazine. 2 Number

of specialty coffee shops in the United States from 1991 to 2015. The Statistics Portal, Statista. 3 Picture

from: Drinks, Bread, and Other 70 Thousand Shops Will No Longer Provide Free Plastic Bags. Yun Wen Chiu, 2016. 4 Picture

from: Less Plastics! Tea Shops Won’t Be Able to Provide Free Plastic Bags Starting 2018. Up Media, 2016. 5 Picture

from: Top 1 Difficult Order is Ice-Free Drinks, Five Oder Combinations that Trouble Tea Shop Clerks. Ting Kang Yu, 2017. 6 Taiwanese

People Are Proud of It: Handmade Drinks (part three). Zhi Wei Liu, 2015 7

Taiwanese Consumers Drank US$1.6 Billion in Freshly Made Drinks. Ya-Chuan Huang and S.C. Chang, 2017. 8

Next Step for Tea and Beverage Brands. Chia Chi Lin, 2017. 9

Implementation of Beverage Cups Source Reduction and Incentives for Recycling: Q&A. Environmental Protection Administration, 2011. 10 Factoring

Affecting College Students’ Intention to Bring Reusable Cups for Buying Take-out Beverages. Shuo-Yi Wei, 2012. 21

11 Using

the Questionnaire to Explore out The Feasible Project Accepted by Consumers for Replacing the Disposal Dinner Set. Chang-Hsin Pan, 2004. 12

Introduction to Cronbach’s Alpha. Chad Marshall. 13

Best Introduction Book to Multivariate Statistical Analysis in SPSS+LISREL (SEM). Wen Long Xiao, 2007. GOTOP Information Incorporation.

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