In the effort to get people to create less waste and recycle more governments and local councils around the world are leaving no stone unturned. Many countries have started to use behavior science, in particular behavioral economics to try and understand ways to get humans to recycle more. Behavioral economics deals with the ways in which human behavior affects economic issues. This can certainly be applied to recycling as governments around the world are starting to understand the different things that motivate people to recycle. Studies have shown that people are far more likely to recycle if there is some type of incentive for them to do so. Other councils have tried to go the opposite direction and levy punishments or fines against people who fail to recycle. The government of the United Kingdom has spent billions of pounds trying to get households to recycle more, when what might have been better would be to study behavioral science.
Behavioral science tells us that people will not always act rationally, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, which is why the British government has been able to spend billions of pounds to educate the public, yet has gotten few results. Sacramento, which is the capital of California, has been able to use studies in behavior science to help lower the amount of heat used in homes. By simply printing energy usage information on bills customers were able to compare their energy consumption with that of similar households. Seeing how much they could save forced them to act, and Sacramento was able to significantly lower their energy consumption.
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