Reframing Recycling Behaviour through Consumers' Perceptions: An Exploratory Investigation

Despite the increasing awareness of the consequences of waste, there is no consensus on how and why consumers engage in recycling, making it challenging to design behavioural interventions that might promote recycling, especially in organisational settings. This study is designed to explain consumers' recycling behaviour and how it differs across contexts, particularly between home and work settings. Using personal accounts of 367 employees from different organisations in the UK, this study explores recycling behaviour at home and work including its motivations and barriers. The findings show that recycling behaviour is different across contexts due to many disparate factors underlying people's waste generation and recycling behaviours from one context to another. According to the findings, buying and consumption behaviour and waste generation patterns influence the way consumers engage in recycling. The study further demonstrates that contextual factors and individual circumstances are important contributors to consumption behaviour, waste production, and recycling behaviour. While recycling behaviour has been investigated extensively, the findings of this study indicate the need for consumption and waste production patterns to be taken into consideration when designing recycling interventions, enhancing the prospect of a circular economy. This study contributes to theory and practice by associating recycling behaviour with buying and consumption behaviour, including waste generation patterns.

Automated summary

This study examines consumers' recycling behavior in different contexts, particularly between home and work settings, using personal accounts of 367 employees from various organizations in the UK. The findings suggest that recycling behavior varies across contexts due to different factors underlying waste generation and recycling behaviors. The study highlights the importance of considering buying and consumption behavior, as well as waste generation patterns when designing recycling interventions in order to enhance the prospects of a circular economy.