Seite - 162 - in Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies - Conference Proceedings of the 17th STS Conference Graz 2018

Figure 2: Semantic differential of plastics and bioplastic (n=999) Bioplastics are associated with more positive properties than plastics because plastics have a bad image as packaging material (Plumb et al. 2013; Thompson et al. 2009). Furthermore, the term “bio” is perceived positively or suggests more positive properties, which can be seen for example on various organic products .(Avensleben & Bruhn 2010; Roosen et al. 2013). The term “bio” and “organic” have the same meaning in the German language. Besides, bioplastic as packaging material can also have some negative properties compared to plastics (negative for the environment) in some cases (Detzel et al. 2012). This study has also some limitations. The data collected is not a representative sample for Bavarian or German students, since the socio-demographic sample characteristics, such as gender, do not follow the structure of Bavarian or German students (Middendorff et al. 2017; Statistisches Bundesamt 2016, 2017). Furthermore, students as target group do not represent the whole population of Germany. In addition, the participants’ course of study was not recorded. 5. Conclusions Students of Bavarian universities have a positive environmental attitude and a positive attitude towards the avoidance of plastic fruit packaging, but they do not percept every packaging function nor can consider packaging material properties differentiated. Food retailers and the government could use the results of this contribution to tackle the lack of knowledge using educational programs. Furthermore, the insights of this study show that food retailers should try to minimize their plastic packaging consumption along their supply chain. The German population as target group for a representative study could give further insights into the knowledge of, and attitude towards, plastic fruit packaging. Additionally, plastic packaging waste should be considered as a whole. That´s why future studies should investigate plastic packaging waste in general and not only a part of it (plastic fruit packaging). 162