Plastic-free shopping as a practice variation in Aotearoa New Zealand

Avoiding plastic packaging, particularly in food shopping, is difficult for consumers due to its pervasiveness and usefulness; it is part of a socio-technical system and entangled in consumers' everyday lives. Reconfiguration research demonstrates the conceptual benefits of practice theory in moving away from the over-emphasis on individual choices or technological solutions (Reckwitz, 2002; Shove, Pantzar & Watson, 2012). However, so far, there has been little emphasis on exploring how systems of everyday practices might adapt and evolve to become more sustainable by replacing or removing plastic in emerging stable practice variations. To this end, we focus on the emergence of plastic-free shopping as a practice variation with a distinct teleological and affective framework. Yet, it is destabilized through its competition with conventional shopping that predominates within the existing system of shopping-related norms and practices in which plastic prevails (Nielson et al., 2020).

We used purposive sampling to recruit participants who provided information-rich cases (Campbell et al., 2020). 18 participants were interviewed, with sampling concluding once data saturation was reached, enabling rich (quality) and thick (quantity) data (Fusch & Ness, 2015; Guest et al., 2006). Interviews lasted between 35 and 72 minutes, averaging 54 minutes. Unlike Fuentes et al. (2019), who studied shoppers at one zero-packaging store, or Rapp et al.'s (2017) multiple zero-packaging stores, our context is plastic-free shopping using a range of stores and supermarkets. This represents the diverse spatio-material context of plastic-free shopping in economies like New Zealand where opportunities for specialist, sustainable shopping are scarce. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was conducted through inductive and deductive data coding (Braun & Clarke, 2019).

Analysis identifies four ongoing processes in the constitution of plastic-free shopping as a new practice variation: assembly, stabilization, misalignment, and habituated compromise. During these, practitioners create, reconstitute, and change the practice of shopping through their performances. Although perfectly aligned performances allow practitioners to integrate the unique teleological and affective components of plastic-free shopping and realize its value and rewards (Schau et al., 2009), misalignment creates negative affective intensity, often in the form of frustration. Subsequent adaptation and negotiation of the plastic-free shopping template allow practitioners to 'carry on', but imperfectly and with effort. This negotiation can blur the boundaries of the emergent practice, threatening its stability.

Our findings highlight the need to recognize and attend to the fragility of plastic-free shopping and to support its emergence as stable practice variation. Our research demonstrates the important role to play by social marketers, for example, several participants discussed how social marketing (Plastic-Free July) triggered their plastic-reduction journey. Social marketing that highlights the rewards and affective incentives in the form of benefits and social value can draw in practitioners already committed to environmental protection. It can also help practitioners develop the skills required to use zero-packaging stores, such as preparing lists and pre-weighing reusable containers as well as help consumers form networks on or offline.