The Guzzler
Graduation project for Enviu, Rotterdam
How can we encourage residents of high-rise buildings in Rotterdam to recycle their organic food and garden waste?
I did my graduation project in 2015 at Enviu, a non-profit venture-building studio focused on systemic change, based in Rotterdam.
Behavioural change
To motivate people to change habits, you need to know why their current habits exist. I started my research by interviewing residents of Rotterdam, focusing on those where change might be more of a possibility: people interested in recycling or interested in environmental matters. My target group was therefore people already involved in green activities: people with a distance to the labor market working in local gardening projects; as well as people interested in permaculture and other environmental matters. This also implied an interesting difference in income and living conditions.
Life lessons
Some of my interviewees had experienced difficulties in life, leading them to work experiences in local gardening projects. Others had a personal interest in green matters. Interviewing both demographics was interesting in that it showed me both possibilities and challenges to meet with my proposed solution.
“De Vreetzak”
aka The Guzzler
My proposed solution for behavioural change was a service designed to motivate users to separate their organic food waste from general waste by means of digital gamification and a physical product - a box to collect the waste, and a website to organise the pick-up with extra perks. Pick-up was done by the demographic of local gardening project volunteers (also those with distance to the labour market). Points were awarded each time, allowing users to get a discount on activities in the city. This gamification model works well to motivate behavioural change. The style and language of the service was humouristic, keeping everything light and enjoyable, reducing friction.
