The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry is setting goals to reduce emissions and waste, and has started replacing single-use disposable products with reusables. These could reduce impact if the principles of a sustainable and circular economy are considered, and consumers handle products in optimum ways. However, the industry still focuses on what makes FMCGs desirable and stimulates consumers to buy, overshadowing long-term and sufficiency-based practices.
Study 1 puts forward evidence that the current approach to ‘sustainable’ consumption is backfiring; whilst some consumers reuse as is expected or in ways that reduce impact, the research found that more consumers reuse in ways that increase impact, e.g. owning multiple reusable FMCGs. The results first describe 18 consumer behaviours structured in a resource handling framework and then, inspired by the waste hierarchy, present them differentiated by impact level. Still in study 1, the overconsumption of reusable FMCGs and the continued consumption of single-use products alongside reusables are probed further, leading to a set of 60 influencing factors grouped according to behavioural constructs and corresponding critical moments in the consumer journey. Study 2 narrows in on the most significant factors leading to overconsumption, e.g. cheap and affordable products. The factors are used to align consumer behaviour with the goal of impact reduction, exemplified by a systems-wide set of interventions conceived of in study 3. Finally, in study 4, the effect of behavioural impact messages on moderating replacement were tested and found to mediate the influence of price.
Overall, a holistic view of overconsumption in relation to reusable FMCGs is offered, with the tools and knowledge needed to recognise, rank and rectify types of behaviour in the quest to achieve more sufficient resource consumption.