Public willingness to pay a premium for uni‐material beverage container in Korea: a contingent valuation study

The use of uni‐materials can reduce the total waste generation by a high recycling rate. This study assesses the public's willingness to pay (WTP) a premium for the uni‐material beverage container (UBC) in Korea using a specific case of bottled mineral water in polyethylene terephthalate (PET). For this purpose, a contingent valuation (CV) survey of 1000 consumers was conducted to derive the additional WTP for the mineral water in UBC instead of that in non‐UBC. Given that the average price of the mineral water (500 mL) in non‐UBC was KRW 1000 (USD 0.88), the mean additional WTP a premium for that in UBC was estimated to be KRW 107 (USD 0.09). This value amounts to 10.7% of price of the mineral water in non‐UBC and can be interpreted as the public value of the UBC. The consumers in Korea are ready to pay a significant premium for UBCs.