When I cover solutions to the plastic waste crisis, I typically focus on infrastructure development and bringing recycling systems to scale, standardizing materials, inventing new ones and designing out unnecessary single-use items, and rethinking business models and supply chains.

But once these structures are in place, they only work if consumers embrace new models and ensure that materials move through the system as planned. Otherwise, the entire system breaks down.

And if you thought it was hard getting your colleagues to recycle rigid plastic or compost paper towels, or to stop wishcycling — that whatever they throw into the bin will, in fact, be recycled — think about the complexity of changing consumer behavior across a city, country or beyond.

During a recent webcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Natalie Hallinger, a behavioral scientist and behavior change adviser working to translate research on human motivation into real-world behavior change strategies.

Here are four tips Hallinger recommends for designing large-scale interventions:

  1. Make it relatable: "People often think they need to force people to do something they don’t want to do," Hallinger shared.
  2. Make it desirable: Culture and social norms are strong drivers of consumer behavior. "The most desirable thing for humans is to fit in," Hallinger explained.
  3. Make it contextual: Behavior change interventions must be relevant and salient.
  4. Make it easy: The "right" choice from a sustainability perspective should also be the easy choice. "If you create the infrastructure and design built environments that make the behavior you want the default, then you have behavior without even needing to persuade the person."

Read the full article about changing consumer behavior by Lauren Phipps at GreenBiz.