We live in a take, make, use and dispose society. Communities have the knowledge of the right disposal and recycling methods and are concerned about the environment, but often behave otherwise (NSW Environment Protection Authority, 2015).
Environmental campaigns often follow a ‘behaviour correction’ approach, a narrow attempt to realise social life change which, evidently, has not been very effective (Hargreaves, 2011).
This research is applying Social Practice Theory to investigate barriers to establishing a stronger recycling culture. Long-term change at household levels which can only be achieved by understanding the formation, recurrence and levers we can apply to change daily disposal practices.
By using an ethnographic research app – a method that has never been applied in Australian household domains – this research will investigate the levers to break unsustainable household behaviour. The app will be given to 50 participants (recruitment process starting late 2019). By receiving daily ‘tasks’, participant will be asked to report household disposal behaviour. The participants will be split into two groups. Group 1, the control group, will simply observe daily disposal practices. Group 2, the intervention group, will be exposed to small changes in their home environment and receive more challenging ‘tasks’. This way real-life barriers and the level of effectiveness of old and new ways to promote recycling cultures will be explored.
This research is financially supported by and will be conducted in cooperation with the Department of Water and Environmental Regulations, WA. The findings will be applied in a real-life environmental campaign commencing in Western Australia in 2020. A new, hybrid campaigning approach that addresses people’s environmental knowledge as well as personal structure will help educators to facilitate significant change and can shift political opinions to work towards more effective government policies to sustain meaningful changes into the future that will strengthen community protection of environment.
