Faradilla Ramadhani; Radhiah Zakaria; Tiara Mairani
The use of styrofoam as food packaging is still widely found because it is considered practical, lightweight, and cheap. However, styrofoam has a negative impact on health and the environment due to the content of harmful chemicals such as styrene and benzene that can be transferred to food, especially at hot temperatures. Students are a group that often uses Styrofoam because of their practical lifestyle and tendency to eat fast food. This study aims to find out the factors related to student behavior in the use of styrofoam as food packaging at the University of Muhammadiyah Aceh. The study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional design. The research population is 3,180 active S1 students for the 2024/2025 academic year from six faculties. The sample of 97 respondents was determined by the Slovin formula through accidental sampling techniques. Data were collected on July 15–22, 2025 using a Google Form questionnaire and analyzed by Chi-square test. The results showed that most of the respondents had good behavior (60.8%), positive attitudes (70.1%), good knowledge (45.4%), exposure to the media (57.7%), and were not influenced by friends (54.6%). There was a significant relationship between knowledge (p = 0.000), attitude (p = 0.010), media exposure (p = 0.012), and peer influence (p = 0.005) with student behavior. This study recommends improving campus education related to the impact of styrofoam and encouraging the use of environmentally friendly packaging.