Motivations of Recycling Behavior - Abstract

Marijke Rijsberman
marijke@interfacility.com

In February 2008 I conducted a set of brief interviews with individual residents of San Francisco concerning their motivations for participating in the city’s (voluntary) separate food waste collection program. The objective of the study was to gain some basic insight into the language participants use and the stories they tell concerning their motivations for separating recyclables, specifically food waste.

Predictably, participants who separate their food waste from their regular trash talk about a concern for the environment. However, in many cases, environmental considerations are simply assumed and the foreground discourse focuses on issues of habit, identity, learning, and community. These findings suggest that the official focus on financial incentives and convenience to compel participation in food waste recycling does not map very closely to the actual experience of participants who have successfully undertaken a relatively demanding behavior change.

For the full paper, see Motivations of Recycling Behavior: A Qualitative Study (PDF)