The science of human habits can consolidate COVID-19’s unexpected environmental gains
Hello! I am Madhuri Karak, the Community Engagement Lead at Rare’s Center for Behavior & the Environment. After a lengthy hiatus, I’m back with monthly snapshots from the growing application of behaviorally-informed insights in the environmental field for Habit Weekly, a newsletter for everyone interested in behavioral design. Subscribe here.
A popular refrain in the early months of the pandemic was that the global lockdown has been good for the environment.
The absence of commuters, restricted individual mobility, and closed businesses had significantly improved air quality in cities infamous for their pollution levels.
Simultaneously however, single use plastic had taken over households. Improperly discarded gloves and masks were clogging up urban sewage systems, and American city governments began issuing fines of up to $500 for medical waste littering.
Waste management is a tricky behavioral challenge because it sits squarely in the intersection between habit, convenience, and cultural meaning.
Will fines curb users from littering public space with cast off masks and gloves? The science so far isn’t reassuring when it comes to public waste disposal.
Studies show that positioning bins prominently in users’ line of sight improve rates of use. Green footprints painted on sidewalks have successfully guided passersby to available trash cans. Another culturally tweaked intervention in China placed gold coin decals, a symbol of good fortune, on the shop floor to curb littering. Researchers reported this strategy to be far more effective than rules, fines, or signage.
What would it take to improve rates of proper mask disposal [in the trash, not down the toilet!] during COVID times when paranoia and misinformation about virus transmission still reigns supreme? Difficult to predict, but it certainly can’t just be fines.
For the science of changing behavior for environmental outcomes, particularly waste management, explore here.
This column appears first in Habit Weekly, a newsletter for everyone interested in behavioral design. Subscribe here.
While behaviorally-informed interventions are relatively widespread in public health, policymaking and marketing, environmental practitioners still rely heavily on information-based awareness campaigns and rules/regulations to enact change.
So how can we promote plant-rich diets, conserve natural resources, encourage the adoption of renewables, and address the myriad environmental challenges we face today? ‘People and Nature’ is bringing you snapshots from the growing application of behaviorally-informed insights in the environmental field.
