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The Recycling Partnership launches Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact

The Recycling Partnership, headquartered in Washington, has launched The Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact to drive measurable improvement in residential recycling behavior and to mobilize household participation in the circular economy.

Each year, 15 million tons of household recyclables are lost to landfills because Americans are confused about recycling. Louise Bruce, managing director for The Recycling Partnership’s Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact, says solving that challenge requires an evidence-based approach.

“By rigorously evaluating and disseminating our findings, we are making the center a go-to hub for innovative, people-focused solutions that substantially improve recycling at every step of the consumer journey,” Bruce says. “With this, we hope to empower recycling leaders to optimize their programs and advance the circularity of the economy.”

The Recycling Partnership says it plans to leverage its network of community partnerships, national database, expertise in recycling education and track record of improving otherwise underperforming recycling programs to propel change in recycling behavior. The organization says it will measure this change through the increased capture of recyclables and growth in household recycling participation.

According to a news release on the center from The Recycling Partnership, it will use behavioral science to gauge consumer confidence in recycling programs and identify the drivers of those beliefs. The center will focus on addressing three areas:

• deepening understanding of consumer barriers and sentiments toward recycling;
• scientifically testing solutions to determine the most effective and scalable tactics to improve recycling behavior with different populations in the U.S.; and
• creating a playbook and accompanying online tool to make best practices and key insights available to national, state and local recycling leaders.

The Recycling Partnership says it is working with six launch advisors who are experts and practitioners in the fields of environmental research, behavioral science, community recycling program management and sustainability marketing to ensure that the center’s research practices meet high scientific standards. These advisors include Bridget Anderson, deputy commissioner of recycling and sustainability for the NYC Department of Sanitation; Jason Hale, director of operations of Ocean Plastics Asia for Systemiq; Steve Raabe, founder and president of OpinionWorks; Suzanne Shelton, founder, president and CEO of Shelton Group; Joseph Sherlock, applied behavioral researcher at the Center for Advanced Hindsight at Duke University; and Cynthia Shih, senior advisor at Delterra.

Financial support for the Center for Sustainable Behavior & Impact was provided by The Walmart Foundation and Milliken & Co. Charitable Foundation, according to The Recycling Partnership.