Exploring opportunities for the improvement of recycling behaviours in universities : The case of the Blåsenhus campus of Uppsala University

Abstract: As the environmental footprint of humans continue s to grow, and the amount of easily available resources keeps dwindling, many countries and institutions have turned towards the concept of circular economy as a way of diminishing their impact on the environment. Based in the idea of closing the resource loop by reducing the need for new resources, increasing efficiency, and reusing resources that are already extracted, many efforts have gone towards transforming our sys tem towards a circular economy. Unfortunately, recycling, identified as a vital part of the move towards circular economy, has been found to be less than optimal in many countries, despite efforts to improve the system. This study examines methods of improving environmental and recycling behaviour in the context of a university setting, the Blåsenhus campus of Uppsala University. Identifying barriers to remove and incentives to apply through a series of focus groups, this study then runs a trial period wher e measures are implemented. These include ads on the campus’ monitors, as well as posters indicating the benefits of recycling, as well as the impacts of failing to do so, information sheets clearly indicating how to recycle the most commonly misplaced ite ms, and the movement of certain bins to make recycling easier to access in relation to the burnables bins. The findings of this study are that the combined use of barrier removal along with the implementation of incentives, can be beneficial to the rates at which waste is recycled.