Judith MacCallum

Waste generation is a significant environmental issue and separating household waste correctly is key to the sustainable management of municipal waste. Murdoch University EdD candidate, Katherine Gaschk used a longitudinal case study to explore the barriers and motivators to correct household waste separation behaviour for a sample of residents within the southern metropolitan region of Perth. She surveyed 299 residential households as well as interviewing a small number of residents and council officers within the region. She also compared 20 years of council annual reports to provide context for her research. 

It’s easy to provide bins. It is much harder to make sure people understand the reasons behind the rules to ensure they are using them correctly.

Katherine’s survey showed that common waste items are separated correctly while many items are not, highlighting a level of confusion within participants. This demonstrates the importance of educating residents about the reasons why different waste items need to be separated correctly. Increasing information to residents can help people to become more engaged in the process, however opportunities also exist for embedding the principles of education for sustainability (EfS) within waste education. EfS principles can help people develop a better understanding of waste management systems and encourage them to think critically about their own waste behaviours in order to achieve better outcomes.

Katherine’s study has shown that residents are positive about recycling, and confident they are separating correctly, but often surprised, frustrated, disappointed, and confused when they find out that they are doing it wrong. Her study highlights the importance for people to understand what happens to their waste once it’s collected to help achieve correct separation behaviour. Residents require knowledge that is correct and current. Embedding EfS principles within waste education programs enables them to engage with educators directly and facilitates collaborative learning that supports residents to do the right thing!

Behaviours within everyday life influences the amount of waste we generate. Hence it is essential we understand how these behaviours fit within the context of sustainable waste management.

There are many ways individuals can reduce waste generation, including decisions made at the time of purchasing to how we dispose of household waste beyond the bin systems provided.

In 2017, China implemented it’s National Sword Policy that placed restrictions on importing contaminated recyclable materials from countries like Australia. In response, Australia released its National Waste Policy aimed at maximising the recovery of recyclable materials as it moves towards a circular economy. A key factor in this is people separating correctly at home.

Recycling technologies change and evolve with time resulting in changes to rules for how to separate. At the time this project started, residents within the case study area separated their waste based on a two-bin system. When this changed to one of the current three-bin systems, residents needed to re-learn how to correctly separate their household waste.

This research has already contributed to the ongoing dialogue and development of waste education programs. The principles of education for sustainability enable people to understand the changing processes behind sustainable waste management. They can also improve how we approach the waste education programs in Western Australia in order to change our behaviours to make a greater contribution to recycling as individuals.