Shifting the Balance among the ‘Three Rs of Sustainability:’ What Motivates Reducing and Reusing?

The “Three Rs of Sustainability—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” are central tenets of many community waste-management programs promoting responsible use of natural resources and ecosystem services. Over the past few decades, recycling has become widespread, but monetary and energy expenditures required to transport and transform waste materials have led to downsizing of recycling programs globally and in the U.S. This trend increases the need for effective reducing and reusing practices as alternatives to recycling. Using a survey experiment to examine motivations that underlie reducing and reusing behaviors, individuals reported their current reducing, reusing, and recycling practices. Respondents then were provided with three hypothetical scenarios that described (1) an external waste-management threat to public well-being, (2) social/peer pressure from family and friends towards sustainable decision-making, and (3) increased convenience of reusing and reducing practices. These messages reflect previously identified RRR motivations. After the scenarios, the questions regarding recycling, reducing, and reusing behavior were presented again to test for changes in the responses. All three scenarios were effective in increasing intended reducing and reusing behavior. The threat scenario was slightly more effective than the others, particularly among individuals who reported behavior with considerable recycling practices but not as much reducing and reusing.