How to design for sustainability? Public recycling is a major issue in Dublin. This is a Service design projet by the NCAD M.A. Interaction Design students for Dublin City Council.

1. Waste Separation Anxiety
Design for behavior change
Joanna Peel
Megan Lynch
Daniel Gleeson

2. What Is The Issue?
Dublin City Council introduced street recycling bins in the past,
but the test failed due to high levels of cross-contamination.
Of 20 bags collected, only 1 bag contained high quality recyclable
material. (24 hour test)

3. How might we…
Help citizens to dispose of waste
/recycling in the correct street bin?
Can we design in good behaviour, and
design out the bad?

4. BEFORE AFTER

5. Initial Research

6. Simon
Discussion with our Champion - Simon Brock

7. Interviews & User Feedback

8. Online Surveys

9. Key Insights

10. #1. From our sample, only 18% of users felt 100% confident that
they knew how to dispose of their waste correctly.

11. ”
“
I’m still a little unsure about the recycle bin. I regularly have to
Google it, even then I'm not 100% sure.

12. #2. If a recycling bag gets contaminated, the entire bag is
generally incinerated or sent to landfill.
The thoughtless acts of a few can ruin the good work of many.

13. #3. The most common form of recycling contamination is
coffee cups.
In Ireland alone, we dispose of 22,000 coffee cups every
hour.
Source: Recycling List Ireland (2018)

14. What did we learn?

15. -Most people in Dublin think they’re helping the cause
when they place their coffee cup in the recycling bin.
-Even when we introduced a separate coffee cup stream
during our testing, some user’s still placed their coffee cup
in the recycling bin.
Awareness is key

16. -Many people complained about there not being enough
bins in the city.
Signage to bins is important.

17. - Waste is usually misplaced when the user has to stop &
think.
The user shouldn’t have to think during their
interaction with a street bin.

18. Field Research

19. Testing Session #1: Christchurch Place
- Converted a D.C.C big belly bin
into our own recycling bin.
- Stuck campaign posters on
sides.
- Offered free coffee &
chocolates (i.e single use
wrapping) to passersby to
better understand users habits
& behaviours.

20. Testing Session #1: Christchurch Place

21. Insights
- Location of the bin determined its frequency of use & impacted
users behaviors
- We needed to test over multiple locations and multiple bins to
compare patterns of behaviours
- The bin tested at this stage was ambiguous looking and there
was no alternative option so clear labelling of each bin was
important so as to give the user a defined choice.

22. Testing Session #2: NCAD On-campus
- Created three different streams for
the on-campus test: general waste,
plastic/cans and coffee cups.
- Offered coffee in disposable cups
to fellow students in attempt to see
them interact with the bins.

23. Testing Session #2: NCAD On-campus

24. Insights
- Even with a separate option for
coffee cups specifically, some
users still put their coffee cups
into the recycling.
- The word “recycling” caused
confusion with placement.
- Lack of distinct design for each bin
added to the confusion.

25. - People don’t think about it
when they throw something
away
- People don’t like garbage
- People don’t care where garbage
goes as long as it is not on the
ground
We need to work on before and
after they act.
💤
Insights

26. Case Study

27. Why a Case Study?
- Street behaviors are impacted by spatial environment & time.
- During this design sprint, we focused on a case study to get relevant
results located close to coffee shops.
- The results of this case study can be replicated on other hot spots
for coffee cups consumption in Dublin.

28. Top 5 Hot Spots for coffee cups consumption (1/2)
📍 A/B Testing

29. Top 5 Hot Spots for coffee cups consumption (2/2)

30. Wexford Street: A/B Testing

31. A/B Testing: Why?
The test was to validate that:
1) Including the word “recycling” on our branding
would have a negative effect on coffee cup
placement
2) A lid with a cup-sized hole would be an efficient
affordance to encourage users into using the
right bin.
3) The signage helped users locating the bins.

32. A/B Testing: Key Insights
Early results indicated that:
1) “recycling” confused users
2) the cup-sized hole worked as an
efficient affordance
3) the signage helped raise awareness
on the existence of dedicated bins
for coffee cups

33. Our Solution

34. A 3-steps strategy for behavior change
Awareness
Interest
Change

35. Awareness
-Need for signage that indicates
where the recycling bins are.
Acting as constant visual
reminders in the city.
-Map of the bins on Google Maps.

36. Awareness
- Visible bins
- Clear streams
- Consistency: one
quirky and fun tone.
People are most likely
to listen to things they
like (Robert CALDINI).

37. Interest
- Why shouldn’t people misplace
coffee cups in the recycling bins?
- Posters on the sides of the bins
and on bus shelters.

38. Interest
- Why shouldn’t people misplace
coffee cups in the recycling bins?
- Posters on the sides of the bins
and on bus shelters.

40. Change
- Call-to-action on
touchpoints: handle,
pedal, inner rim.

42. What would we do
Next

43. Education
Create an ambassador program aimed at Primary School
children.

44. An Education Campaign
- Gamify a serious subject.
- Children will act as
ambassadors with their
parents.

45. Communication
Our informative posters provide evidence of the need for a
change of behavior. To trigger massive change of behavior,
we need an integrated communications campaign based on
emotions.

46. A Communication Campaign
● Positive tone: tackle a global
issue at a local scale to
avoid discouragement
● Consensus: others do it>>
people look to behaviors of
others to determine their
own

47. A Communication Campaign
● Art on the bins that encourages people sharing pictures on social
media

48. The Team

49. Thank You
Any questions?