Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/3423
Date of Award
8-2026
Degree Name
MS in Environmental Sciences and Management
Department/Program
Natural Resources Management
College
College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences
Advisor
Nicholas Williams
Advisor Department
Natural Resources Management
Advisor College
College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences
Abstract
The practice of using plastics in agriculture is so prevalent it has earned its own name: plasticulture. One key plasticulture tool is polyethylene (PE) mulch film, a thin plastic sheet laid over the field for a single growing season and pulled out before the next. Because PE film is hard to recycle, most of it ends up in a landfill, yet how growers decide what happens to used plastic mulch has rarely been studied. To identify what shapes that decision, this study draws on a survey of California strawberry growers (n = 126). Twenty variables, spanning grower attitudes, farm characteristics, and structural position, were tested against each grower's PE film disposal method in the 2024 growing season. A majority of growers were concerned about the environmental impacts of plastic mulch, yet only two variables correlated with disposal after correcting for multiple comparisons: the grower's region and their information network. The most connected growers recycled at a meaningful rate, while the rest landfilled almost everything. These results reflect the attitude-behavior gap. Structural position, not attitudes or farm characteristics, separated growers who recycled from those who did not.