ABSTRACT
Domestic recycling rates have increased in the United Kingdom, but they are below the EU’s 50% target of materials diverted from landfill. There is much knowledge about how individuals respond to appeals to increase recycling rates but less about decision-making within households. Accordingly, this chapter focuses on the household, assessing motivations and barriers influencing recycling activities within the home. Detailed qualitative data were collected from ten households in London, revealing waste practices deeply embedded in household routines. Habitualised practices allow only limited potential for influencing conscious ‘decision-making’ about recycling. Waste and recycling are often ‘designed out,’ with contextual factors inhibiting recycling. To increase household waste recycling, greater focus is needed on how households negotiate recycling. This needs to address how waste and recycling can be ‘designed in’ to homes, promoting greater assimilation of recycling as habitual practice, supported by infrastructures, technologies, and aesthetics in the home.
