ABSTRACT

While human behaviour change is at the heart of many of the potential solutions to today’s environmental challenges, it remains elusive. It is therefore unsurprising that much research in environmental psychology has been directed towards understanding the intrapersonal factors that motivate pro-environmental behaviour. For some environmentally friendly activities, however, situation-specific contextual factors, such as the suitability of available infrastructure, also affect behaviour. This chapter describes an honours research project that sought to identify the situation-specific contextual factors in a temporary accommodation setting that might impact on the resident population’s participation in a food waste collection system – with particular attention paid to the influence of accommodation type. The contextual factors identified were used to design infrastructure for a food waste collection system that aimed to minimize barriers to participation. Together with a complementary communication campaign, the infrastructure was trialled over a four-week period. The research process, from investigation of situation-specific factors to infrastructure and communication campaign design, and finally the results of the trial, are presented.