In 2011, Malaysia introduced the No Plastic Bag Day program to discourage the use of plastic bags for carrying items purchased from shopping stores. In the country, most of them use plastic bags as carrier bags. However, their excessive use leads to a large amount of plastic waste. Plastic waste takes a long time to degrade and contributes to air, water and soil pollution. Aimed at reducing the environmental degradation from improper disposal of used plastic bags, the No Plastic Bag Day program applies a "market" instrument to discourage consumers from using plastic bags to carry items purchased. In the program, participating stores do not give out plastic bags. They charge a levy of MYR0.20 (USD0.06) for each new plastic bag requested by customers during the program. This paper reports the findings of an observatory study conducted during the middle of 2013. The study aims to identify the level of consumer participation in the program and analyze the effectiveness of the program.

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The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been introduced in Malaysia to replace the Sales and Services Tax (SST) to improve the efficiency of indirect tax collection. However, its implementation has not been fully understood by business people.  This research aims to examine the key factors that have contributed to the level of acceptance towards GST among business communities in a local city, Johor Bharu. In this study, three variables were selected namely awareness, understanding and attitude. Using questionnaire as a research instrument, 100 sets of questionnaires were distributed. Multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationship among awareness, understanding and attitude with the level of acceptance among business communities towards GST. The results revealed that the mean score for all independent variables is moderate. Awareness and attitude were found to have significant impact on the level of acceptance among business community towards GST, while understanding is not significant. The business community in Johor Bahru shows a moderate or positive level of acceptance and attitude towards GST.

This paper analyzes conservation behaviour of university students. Data is gathered in 2010 from 248 full-time UiTM Shah Alam students of different ßelds of study using surwey questionnaire. 7he study analyses conserwation behawiour of uniwersity students in relation to specißc socio-demographic characteristics. Specifically, analysis includes investigation into the relationship of gender, urban-rural strata of student’s background, parents’ highest education lewel and ßelds of study with conserwation behawiour around the campus area and in their lifestyle. Results show signißcant relationship between conservation behaviour of university students with rural background and parents with school education as their highest education level. Keywords: conservation behavior; university students; strata; parents’ education eISSN 2514-7528 © 2017 The Author. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.

Enhancing demand side management is among the focus of Malaysia in its effort to pursue green growth throughout 2016 to 2020. Per capita waste disposal in the country is 0.3 to 1.2 kg and only a mere 2% is recycled. There is huge potential for reducing solid wastes in the country through a more sustainable waste management approach such as reducing, recycling and proper disposal.  This paper explores the result of a quantitative study conducted via a survey questionnaire on 118 households around Klang Valley. Applying the protection motivation theory, an ordinary least squares regression is applied to data to determine the significant factors affecting waste management behavior of households. Several elements of waste management behavior are investigated, such as waste avoidance, green purchases and reuse and recycle behavior. Results of study show that coping and threat appraisal processes significantly affect waste disposal and reuse and recycle behavior. For green purchasing and waste avoidance behavior, they are affected by coping appraisal but not threat appraisal process.  The study suggests that if the government can promote the information on how severe contaminated environments can have on humans and their surroundings, it can lead to more responsible disposal of waste as well as can increase reuse and recycling activities of households. Apart from that, highlighting the positive impact an individual person’s action can bring to the environment may increase reuse and recycling, waste avoidance and disposal and green purchase activities of the society, particularly the households.