Attitudes to the responsible disposal of waste vary hugely around the world. Circular’s Peter Taylor Whiffen asks why do some countries get this so right and others so wrong?
When Japan’s footballers beat Germany in the 2022 FIFA men’s World Cup, their fans stayed in the stadium long after the final whistle: singing, cheering, and tidying up.
It wasn’t a one-off either, or even because their surprise victory had put them in a good mood. One of the most arresting sights throughout that 2022 tournament was Japan’s supporters sticking around after a match – win, lose or draw – to put their rubbish into blue bags they had brought with them.
“For Japanese people, this is just the normal thing to do,” said team coach Hajime Moriyasu. “When you leave, you have to leave a place cleaner than it was before. That’s the education we have been taught.”
It’s not quite such a normal thing in the UK. In the spring of 2021, Britain was basking in an unseasonably warm weekend and, with Covid lockdown restrictions temporarily eased, millions descended on the country’s public parks.
Despite the threat of spreading the disease, in open spaces across the country – including Leeds, Liverpool, London, Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham and beauty spots in the Lake District, the Peak District and Devon – they left behind mountains of rubbish so great that council teams had to be specially deployed the next day to clean it all up.
“It’s an absolute disgrace,” said one jogger at Nottingham’s Forest Recreation Ground. “It’s a real blight on our city caused by selfish people.”
Of course, the British are not the untidiest people in the world – the Philippines, Indonesia and India are regularly cited as having the most littered streets. Nor is Japan the only nation whose people instinctively pick up after themselves – Scandinavian cities are famously clean, tidy places.
But if we in Britain are to tackle the fundamental problem of waste, reduce the amount of rubbish we throw away and achieve a circular economy, we arguably need to shift, as a culture, how we approach the challenge.
While other nationalities appear to have an instinctive sense of collective social responsibility, British culture means we’re rather more reluctant. So, how might we change that mindset, make people more proud and engender a culture of circularity?
Creating a circular culture
“Prompting a national change in behaviour is easier in some countries than others,” says behavioural scientist Marc Atherton.
“If you want people to act in a different way, it’s easier to achieve in, say, Japan or Switzerland, or Scandinavia, because the culture of those places means their people are already predisposed to behave in response to an appropriately crafted prompt.
“But when it comes to Britain or the US, where culture is more individualistic – ‘I have a right to do what I think is right’ – the kind of behavioural intervention that would be effective in a collaborative culture is not likely to work here.”
Of course, the resources sector and others championing a circular economy have long used behavioural science to persuade the public to join their journey.
The United Nations (UN) has a dedicated Behavioural Science Group. In the UK, the Whitehall-based Behavioural Insights Team, set up by then Prime Minister David Cameron in 2010, continues to use psychological understanding and techniques such as ‘nudge theory’ to sway, rather than compel, the public to act in a certain way.
But while nudging may change people’s behaviour, this is often a short-term fix at best and, at worst, completely ineffective, believes Atherton – because it doesn’t take into account the cultural reasons for people to behave as they do.
“People have latched onto behavioural economics and science,” adds Atherton, who is managing partner at behavioural science corporate consultants Allaxa.
“Organisations, politicians, nations have looked to nudging and said, ‘if we do enough of this, people will change’. But behaviour is quite sticky, and those adopting nudging often miss the point by treating absolutely everyone the same, with the same values, attitudes and beliefs – and, of course, we’re not.
“To change people’s natural instincts permanently, by exploiting their biases, you have to understand those biases and why their culture drives them to behave in a particular way.”
Which means those trying to make the UK embrace and hasten a circular economy need to understand the uniquely British idiosyncratic beliefs and values that make us tick.
“The reason there are jokes about national stereotypes is that they reflect an understanding that there are centres of gravity around culture that affect our views.” says Atherton.
“These have developed over years – you can’t wish them away; you have to work with them. So the British model of nudging should be tailor-made for us, recognising that we’re not as individually minded as, say, the Americans or as collectively minded as the Japanese.”
So, what are those stereotypical British values – and how can we use them to persuade people towards circularity?
Appealing to people’s desire for fairness
“Our concept of fair play is one,” says Atherton, “and the belief that – despite what Margaret Thatcher said all those years ago – there is still such a thing as society.
“We aren’t a collective society; we are quite individualistic, but we do have a concept of social fairness, which is embodied in the way we interact with people – for instance, in the way we queue up while everyone else barges past.
“So the messaging should be that [when it comes to responsible waste management] we would save money, say – but we’d also be helping our friends and society would benefit from our actions.”
That message of personal gain and social responsibility is a key reason recycling rates have improved so much over the past 25 years, according to Friends of the Earth.
Its campaign, in the early 2000s, for a recycling bill that would give every UK household a kerbside recycling collection was built around persuading Brits that, as well as helping the environment, recycling ‘creates jobs, saves energy and reduces the pollution from waste disposal’.
Atherton cites how similarly tapping into British values and beliefs informed a client project he did with a US-based global company about educating people on how to use less electricity.
“Some nudging aspects worked in America because the core of it was all about individual financial gain – if you do this, you will be better off,” Atherton said. “But that motivation alone did not work in the UK, and we realised it was because British people reacted more positively to balancing financial gain with social good.”
Another lever to push Brits towards a circular economy, he says, is our tendency for self-effacement.
In the same electricity project, one of the most effective actions in the US was making information on how much power each household was using publicly available, which worked because a lot of people consuming less power delighted in pointing this out to their more profligate neighbours. In Britain, however, the company used the fact that, although we’re proud to use less power, we’re more discreet about it.
“We British don’t like to shout about it,” says Atherton, “so instead of making the information publicly available, they got a private reward – a badge on their bill telling them they were in the top 10% of households for efficient energy use.
“It tapped into that unique British combination of individual pride and social justice – they were benefiting financially, but their actions were also helping broader society.”
Such private, discreet awards can help instil British pride in keeping us moving towards circularity, he adds: “We are proud of our achievements, and we like to be recognised for what we have done, but we’re not generally people to laud our own achievements loudly.
“We internalise them – but having our efforts to, say, circularity recognised with a discreet thank you that says we are seen and appreciated is a great driver for us, as it taps into our sense of British identity.”
Some demographic groups will need a more specific message than others, however. Impact’s Great Green Sustainability Study found that Britain’s 18 to 34-year-olds – despite growing up with the concept of recycling and having the most pro-environmental attitudes of any age group – actually recycle less than their elders. There were, the study revealed, key reasons for this: education and, mainly, motivation.
First, and somewhat incongruously, this group claimed to have the least knowledge about recycling processes. In addition, 45% said the environment was a low priority compared with other things in their lives (10% higher than other age groups), and young people were much more likely than older respondents to be influenced by their peers.
Nearly half (43%) of 18 to 34-year-olds claimed it was ‘not worth doing things to help the environment if others don’t do the same’. All of which means that young people – arguably the demographic most crucial in taking cultural change forward to successive generations – need their own set of messages, nudges and other behavioural prompts.
“Campaigns should encourage mass involvement,” concluded Impact’s study, “but the actions they promote must be convenient… compatible with young people’s daily lives… and not detract from other things they find important. Unless this is achieved, this age group simply won’t dedicate themselves to the cause.”
So it’s vital, says Atherton, that messaging and campaigning to shift us to a circular economy is designed to resonate with its audience.
“It’s simply messaging that corporate marketers have done for decades – know your customer,” he says. “Yet we don’t seem to grasp it when it comes to getting society to shift. Even the UN doesn’t seem to make the link between culture and individual behaviour, and appears to think the way to change mindset is a one-size-fits-all solution.
“But the messaging from central government and from independent centres of excellence is that we need to understand not just who we’re talking to, but, crucially, how they hear the message – because how we hear and interpret is framed by our world view.
“There is a saying in psychology that there are only three things that will make people change – desperation, boredom or the realisation that they can. Tapping into that last one is the most important – and to do that, you have to connect with people where they are.”