Design for behaviour change – The influence of packaging design on recycling

Initial evidence indicates that design can drive socially desirable behaviour change, but little is known about why and under what conditions the effects of design are most likely. We tested whether packaging designs aimed at making people focus on the environment promoted recycling. In Study 1, 380 Dutch citizens viewed either a biscuit package or a cup with or without an environmental design and reported how they would dispose of the item. In Study 2, 104 Dutch university students received a hot beverage in a recyclable cup with an environmental or non-environmental design and we observed whether they disposed of the cup in a recycling bin. While there was no effect of design on the intention to recycle the biscuit package, participants reported that they were more likely to recycle the cup with the environmental design (Study 1), and we observed that they did, in fact, recycle the cup with the environmental design more often than the non-environmental cup (Study 2). We also found a significant interaction effect for the cup conditions: Intention to recycle, and actual recycling, of the environmental increased with increasingly strong biospheric values. We discuss implications of our findings.