Municipal Food Waste Collection Reduces Food Waste in Landfill and Promotes Positive Behavioral Spillovers.
Food waste decomposition in landfills produces high amounts of methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. Composting food waste produces less methane than landfill decomposition. However, structural and psychological barriers prevent most people from composting food waste. We address these barriers by developing a user-centered composting program with the City of Durham. We then investigate the program’s capacity to divert food waste from landfills through a randomized control trial. We also investigate the program’s ability to increase pro-environmental identity and pro-environmental “spillover” behaviors beyond composting. We find that the composting program diverts food waste from landfills, and may promote pro-environmental spillover behaviors.
Joseph Sherlock
Joseph Sherlock is a Principal Behavioral Scientist at Duke University where he leads a team focusing on using behavioral science to bring innovation into civic society. He is also PhD candidate at the London School of Economics, where he is exploring how behavioral ideas can increase trust in elections and enable pro-environmental behavioral spillovers. His passion is using behavioral science as a vehicle for evidence based and evidence generating innovation. Joseph has a First-Class Psychology degree from the University of Bath and holds an MSc in Social Policy from The London School of Economics.
Lyndsay Gavin
Manages the Innovation Team at the City of Durham, North Carolina and has a background in engineering, public health, and applied behavioral research. She is passionate about environmental sustainability, social mobility, and developing human-centered public programs and policies that promote both of those ideals.
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