Lifting Recycling As The Standard Since 1990

A lot of effort goes into educating the public about how and what to recycle, but addressing contamination and low participation involves more than simply telling people what to do. A less appreciated but equally important step is to design public-facing collection bins and service arrangements that intuitively guide correct sorting behavior. Taken together, best practices like using standardized colors or centralized collection arrangements are part of an approach that recognizes recycling and waste as a complex “system”. And like energy management, traffic safety, and other examples, recycling and waste systems can be optimized through better design to deliver improved performance with higher and cleaner material recovery. This presentation will include a high-level primer about recycling behavior, and explain how a number of both common and less well-known best practices can lead to improved recycling.