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Asian Journal of Water, Environment and Pollution. Vol. 22, No. 1 (2025), pp. 83-98.
doi: 10.36922/ajwep.7089

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Examining how corporate environmental strategies
influence the management of plastic pollution in food and

beverage firms

Smangele Nzama * and Odunayo M. Olarewaju 2
1
1 Department of Financial Accounting, Faculty of Accounting and Informatics, Durban University of Technology, Durban,
South Africa
2 Department of Accounting, College of Business and Management, Metro State University, Minnesota, United States of
America
*Corresponding author: Smangele Nzama (smangelen1@dut.ac.za)

Received: December 6, 2024; Revised: February 26, 2025; Accepted: March 3, 2025; Published Online: March 14, 2025

Abstract: This research work aims to investigate how the corporate environmental strategy (CES) influences
the management of plastic pollution. The focus of this study was a food and beverage (F&B) manufacturing
firm in Durban, South Africa, because of their use of plastic items for packaging their products. Furthermore,
when their product has served its function, it is disposed of, polluting the environment. There is a global worry
as plastic waste is contaminating the land and marine environment. The pressure from different stakeholders
for the accountability of those responsible has grown rapidly over the years. Quantitative information was
gathered using a structured questionnaire to survey 128 F&B manufacturing companies’ managers in finance,
management, factory, and accounting departments. The data were analyzed with Statistical Package for the
Social Sciences, and the Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to examine the
relationship between the variables. The findings revealed a positive relationship between CES and plastic
pollution control (PPC). The R value of 0.149 was obtained from the linear regression analysis, suggesting
2
that CES accounts for 14.9% of the variance in PPC. Thus, a significant linear relationship between the two
variables was discovered.

Keywords: Environmental degradation; Environmental management accounting; Plastic waste; Plastic recycling

1. Introduction and regulate the impact of their activities on the natural
environment, they have been accused of greenwashing.
2
Several decades ago, industrial practitioners, environmental Firms are under a lot of pressure from stakeholders
policymakers, academics, and businesses paid little attention to lessen the environmental effects of their industrial
to the environment because they believed that the products activities. Businesses must prioritize environmental and
produced by their corporations had minimal environmental nature conservation operations in light of the various
influence. Environmental degradation has become a global environmental challenges that have been identified. As
3,4
environmental issue. While companies have sought to firms attempt to adopt sustainable business strategies in
1
implement environmental management practices, which the face of changing stakeholder demands, businesses,
include methodologies, policies, and procedures to monitor particularly manufacturers, are beginning to confront legal

Volume 22 Issue 1 (2025) 83 doi: 10.36922/ajwep.7089