How might we use behavioral insights to design better waste management systems? Featuring An Interactive Online Test.
SOUR, a hybrid design studio with the mission of solving social and urban issues, just launched a new interactive tool on behavior around individual and corporate waste patterns and management. As part of their continuing work on how we might design systems and spaces with human behavior in mind, the tool functions both as a summary of part of the research as well as an awareness piece.
See also:
- Architects As Sustainable Actionists
- SOUR Launches Carbon Calculator for Architecture and Construction
- With, Not For: Sustainable and Inclusive Design
Almost everyone supports recycling and 75% of our waste stream is recyclable – yet we currently only recycle about 30% – if we’re optimistic. Many times we do not really know how to recycle a product, slide into patterns of convenience, do not have physical access to the right bins, or don’t trust the outcomes of our recycling efforts. The numbers show recycling is one of the quickest and easiest climate acts with huge potential still, which should be an easy win – but it’s not. How might we realize our potential to recycle better?
Our Interactive Online Test
This interactive digest by SOUR is generated from explorations to understand motivations and barriers around recycling at individual and organizational levels. In the form of an interactive online test, the individual or representative of a firm walks through different aspects of waste management, interacting with questions around recycling, while also exploring considerations around reducing and repurposing.
Recycling is just the tip of the iceberg. Waste reduction activities are a great first step but true sustainability requires systematically preventing waste at every step. Let’s start identifying as “waste preventers” and build our commitments for daily activation.
ABOUT SOUR
We are SOUR, a hybrid design studio based in NYC and Istanbul addressing social and urban problems through sustainable and inclusive methodologies.
“SOUR” encompasses our mission to take on social and urban issues, and also describes our attitude. We embrace the discomfort of being in the gray, exploring the unknown and challenging the norm. We take our time to research, synthesize and ideate in order to generate data-inspired, purposeful, and culture-specific design solutions.
We believe the world has spent enough time sugar coating — It’s time we get real, confront uncertainty, and be SOUR.
You can read more about SOUR on their website sour.studio, and find the interactive summary on waste and human behavior under the Research Tab > [S]OUR Studies.
See inside the studio!
RESOURCES – WASTE INTERACTIVE SUMMARY
Journal of Consumer Psychology
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein
Department of Ecology, Washington
SOUR Expert Interviews and Cultural Immersions