Why doorstepping can increase household waste recycling

Abstract In this study we report on a doorstepping intervention which produced a 12.5%, statistically significant, increase in the recycling capture rate. More importantly, we investigate why doorstepping caused the increase, through focus groups, structured interviews and questionnaires. By analyzing the findings with respect to a pragmatic set of eleven clusters of determinants of behaviour change, we find that social norms and emotion were important, with prompts as a more minor determinant. We can now plan further doorstepping knowing an emphasis on these is useful. Knowledge, skills, belief of consequences, belief of capability, action planning, role clarification, feedback, and motivation were determinant clusters found not to be important in this case. Recycling behaviour change interventions often do not generally produce transferable learning because they are usually presented as case studies and not broken down into key elements. Our analytical approach of breaking down a poorly defined activity – doorstepping – into elements which influence different clusters of determinants, and then exploring their separate impacts, allows some predictive planning and optimization for other interventions. The specific context here was residential food waste recycling in apartment blocks of communities in Shanghai, China.