Dimapur: A Nagaland University study found that community expectations and social norms strongly influence how people handle plastic waste, highlighting the need for waste-management strategies that work through trusted local institutions and community networks rather than relying on awareness campaigns alone.
The study examined the factors influencing plastic-handling practices by 226 residents across Kohima, Dimapur and Chümoukedima districts, supplemented by open-ended responses from 131 respondents and in-depth interviews with 10 additional participants, a varsity release said on Monday.
Data were collected between June and December 2025.
The findings suggest that changing plastic-waste behaviour requires more than informing individuals about the environmental consequences of plastic.
The study observed that community expectations and the practices people observe around them are important. This provides an opportunity to work through institutions that already have social trust and influence.
Emphasising the importance of premier academic institutions to study societal issues, Prof. Jagadish Kumar Patnaik, VC, Nagaland University, said, “This study highlights the important role of community norms, cultural values and collective responsibility in addressing the growing challenge of plastic waste.”
He said sustainable waste management requires not only adequate infrastructure and effective institutional mechanisms, but also active community participation and sustained behavioural change.
The findings were published in Environmental and Sustainability Indicators (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2026.101539), an Elsevier Gold open-access journal focusing on environmental and sustainability indicators, environmental management, policy formulation and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainable development.
Nagaland University faculty Prof. Prabhakar Sharma and Prof. Gyanendra Nath Tiwari co-authored the paper.
The open-access publication fee was supported through the One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative of the Government of India.
The findings showed that subjective norms, such as the expectations and behaviour of people around an individual, were the strongest correlate of self-reported plastic-handling practices.
Personal attitudes towards plastic waste were also associated with behaviour, while cultural values were found to be a correlate, although the researchers cautioned that the measure of cultural values had low reliability and therefore should not be interpreted as a proven independent driver, the study added.