complex contextual constraints at home that individuals may not have control over, or even be aware of. Considering the likelihood that any widescale transition towards circularity is an issue that far exceeds the knowledge, conscious choices, actions, and material capabilities of the average British consumer requires us to think much more critically and imaginatively about the idea of consumer sovereignty. OUR INSIGHTS Working as part of the multidisciplinary Plastic Packaging in People’s Lives project, we challenge the sovereignty of the individual consumer to reveal the social, cultural, material and institutional conditions that shape and are shaped by people’s relationships with plastic packaging in everyday life. Insights from our research highlight details that require careful consideration when thinking about supporting society’s transition towards a more circular economy. We draw attention to one of these details here. THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIO-DOMESTIC CONCERNS An important condition for ensuring domestic recycling is each consumer’s subjective and sometimes unconscious concerns for their home. Within our research, we found that while households are aware of local council guidance to rinse any soiled plastic food packaging prior to placing it in indoor recycling bins, their willingness to do so is constrained by patterns of ensuring comfort, cleanliness, and harmony within their living environment. Rinsing out plastic meat trays, and so on, is rarely undertaken just to meet the formal requirements of local council and waste management services. It is bound up in rhythms of maintaining hygiene and order of the home, such as preventing unwelcome food odours from the build-up of recycling bin contents. In some cases, preventing disorder in the home dissuades households from rinsing out and recycling their packaging. A fleeting fear of spreading harmful residue (e.g. food bacteria, salmonella, E. Coli) is reason enough to disavow any felt pressure to recycle, meaning many containers used for raw meat products – such as poultry and minced meat – are left unwashed and discarded amongst kitchen waste in regular rubbish bins. For some households, the inconvenience of washing greasy substances down their drains and hesitation based on concern for their kitchen pipes are enough to disqualify any attempt to wash plastic containers with stubborn oily contents. Soiled plastic containers are either disposed of in the general waste bin – and thus lost to recycling efforts – or are placed into the local council recycling bin unwashed, which can contaminate entire recycling truck loads. Household efforts to maintain order in the home have impact on both the quality and quantity of kerbside recycling collections. Consequently, improving household recycling rates is partly about challenging deep-seated conventions and practices. BEYOND RECYCLING Whilst addressing recycling issues is important for society’s transition towards plastic packaging circularity, we need to remind ourselves that recycling will not work as a standalone strategy to manage the scale of the plastic waste problem. At best, recycling processes and practices support the circulation of plastic packaging that has already met supermarket shelves. At worst, we are in danger of allowing the reproduction and persistence of current food production, consumption and disposal practices. In other words, it suggests we are off the environmental hook and can continue to practice ‘business as usual’ without tending to the roots of the problem. Our transition towards a more circular packaging system requires much more than efforts to persuade consumers to change their behaviours and should be directed towards shaking up existing household routines, and the ways in which people purchase, store and preserve food at home, amongst others. Policymakers, producers, retailers, and local authorities need to work in tandem to implement change towards plastic packaging circularity and meaningful recycling practices. FIFTY FOUR DEGREES | 21 Dr Charlotte Hadley is a Research Associate in the Marketing Department. James Cronin is a Professor in Marketing and Consumer Culture Studies. Alex Skandalis is a Professor in Consumer Culture and Head of the Marketing Department. The white paper report Household Recycling: Managing Plastics at the Home & Hearth draws upon findings from the Consumer Insights work package of the Plastic Packing in People’s Lives project, centred on the factors that influence households’ consumption and disposal of plastic packaging. c.hadley2@lancaster.ac.uk; j.cronin@lancaster.ac.uk; a.skandalis@lancaster.ac.uk
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