The relationship between climate conditions and consumption of bottled water: A potential link between climate change and plastic pollution

Oscar Zapata

Ecological Economics, 2021, vol. 187, issue C

Abstract: The solution to the challenges that society currently faces, for example climate change and global pollution, requires the understanding of the linkages between these problems. One of these linkages relates changes in climate conditions to consumption of bottled water, which constitutes a source of plastic pollution worldwide. Using information from the labour and households' environmental behaviour surveys and climate records of Ecuador, a geographically fragmented country, we determine how climate conditions affect the decision to consume bottled water and the volume consumed. We methodologically address the problem of selection when households make decisions about this type of consumption, and find that climate variables are important to explain whether and how much bottled water households consume. The temperature-elasticity of the demand for bottled water ranges from inelastic to elastic depending on the model specification. An increase of 1 °C in average temperature is associated, on average, with an increase of almost one-fifth of a water bottle. Temperature increases the consumption of bottled water even more in rural areas and among occupations exposed to climate conditions.

Keywords: Temperature; Bottled Water; Selection Model; Household Survey; Tropics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:187:y:2021:i:c:s0921800921001488

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107090

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