Recyling bias and reduction neglect

New paper out in Nature Sustainability:

Abstract: Waste generation and mismanagement are polluting the planet at accelerating and unsustainable rates. Reducing waste generation is far more sustainable than managing waste after it has been created, which is why ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ is ordered the way it is, with reduce first and recycling as a last resort. However, our research finds strong evidence for a recycling bias and reduction neglect. Across two surveys (NTotal = 1,321), most participants perceived recycling as the most sustainable action to manage waste. This error decreased when different waste destinations were emphasized and when choice options were reduced. When asked in study 2 (N = 473), 53.9% of participants recognized that the product design stage offered the greatest potential for mitigating waste and its impacts. However, participants only felt empowered to enact change via their consumption (72.9%) and disposal choices (23.3%). For consumers and producers alike, policies and interventions should motivate source reduction and reuse, which could help correct the misplaced preference for recycling.

Accompanying piece in The Conversation: Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste

David Harold Krantz of Nashville, Tennessee 1938 - 2023

My brilliant, creative, kind, loving mentor Dave Krantz passed away. Here is his obituary. He leaves behind a legacy of deep interdisciplinary thinkers and a community of world wide collaborators. I was lucky enough to study psychology and statistics from him as a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED) which he directed at Columbia University. We were dear friends until the end of his life. He introduced me to Octavia Butler (and countless other scifi), taught me how to make the most delicious dishes, to enjoy poetry and humor, to slow down, to value precise inference, to navigate love and life…and so much more. He is missed.

To Know the Dark

To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.

Wendell Berry

Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: A Workshop

Shahzeen will be speaking at the National Academies Workshop on societal responses to climate change, May 4-5 2023.

“Join the planning committee for Integrating the Human Sciences to Scale Societal Responses to Environmental Change: A Workshop as they explore the potential for synthesizing the human sciences (e.g., social, behavioral, psychological, political, organizational) to develop critical societal capacities for and responses to climate change. The 2-day, virtual (public) workshop will consider how to integrate, align, and converge the broad mix of social, behavioral, and cognitive sciences to produce new insights and inform efforts for enhanced human responses to environmental change. Earth System Science increasingly incorporates human systems in its analysis of climate change, but social, behavioral, and social sciences have yet to align internally in prioritizing and addressing the range of challenges faced by individuals and communities in responding to the various stresses and opportunities posed by climate change. The planning committee is formed under the auspices of the Board on Environmental Change and Society at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.”

Knoxfill by Michaela Barnett

Change maker Michaela Barnett created Knoxfill to offer better alternatives to wasteful products. She says: “We all need things like soap and toothpaste - but we don't need the single use packaging these products usually come in! I care about making our community a more sustainable, safer, and equitable place.”

At Knoxfill (located in Knoxville TN) you can bring in your containers and fill up all that you need for your home. Way to go, Change Maker Michaela! So proud of you.


Congrats to Ananya Rao and Sangeet Nepal on their new climate solution positions!

Ananya Rao accepted a position with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), in New Delhi. CSE is a public interest research and advocacy organization based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for and communicates the urgency of development that is both sustainable and equitable. Ananya has joined their Climate Change team as a Program Officer and will be working in the climate mitigation space.

Sangeet Nepal accepted a position as a specialist with the Carbon Capture Coalition. Carbon Capture Coalition is a nonpartisan collaboration of more than 100 companies, unions, conservation and environmental policy organizations, building federal policy support to enable economy wide, commercial scale deployment of carbon management technologies. Sangeet will oversee development of a dedicated program of work on direct air capture and carbon conversion to complement and build on the Coalition’s broader carbon management priorities and activities. 

Congratulations Ananya and Sangeet!!! ˗ˏˋ ★ ˎˊ˗

Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today's and Tomorrow's Challenges

Shahzeen Attari was part of a committee to write the consensus report on Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today's and Tomorrow's Challenges.

This report calls for EPA ORD to pursue all of its scientific aims in a new framework—to apply systems thinking to a One Environment − One Health approach in all aspects of ORD work. To accomplish this, the report provides actionable recommendations on how ORD might consider incorporating emerging science and systems thinking into the agency research planning, so that ORD can become an increasingly impactful organization. The report concluded by stating that shifting to a systems-thinking approach will require renewed support from science leadership, enhanced strategic planning, investment in new and broader expertise and tools, and a reimagined and inclusive commitment to communication and collaboration.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Transforming EPA Science to Meet Today's and Tomorrow's Challenges. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26602.