Pondering Over Our Consumption Habits
In a recent discussion, led by broadcaster Kim Hill, Dame Juliet Gerrard, the former Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor, and a panel of experts, discussed the urgent need to address plastic pollution. The end-of-year report, to be led by psychologists, will focus on changing behavior to combat this global issue.
A video excerpt from the discussion, directed by Shirley Horrocks and produced by Point of View Productions, is now available. The rights to the video are published by Referencing Hub media.
The panel emphasized the importance of adopting systemic, multi-level approaches that combine awareness, education, policy, behavioral shifts, and infrastructure improvements. The shift in schoolchildren wearing sunhats, as an example, illustrates how cultural change can be modeled.
Key strategies include:
- Awareness and Education: Campaigns like Indonesia’s Dietplastik, which educates about plastic bag waste and responsibly charging for plastic use, have successfully encouraged reductions in single-use plastics.
- Policy and Corporate Accountability: Laws and regulations can push producers and consumers toward sustainable alternatives. The Break Free From Plastic movement promotes policies holding corporations accountable and shifting waste management financial burdens.
- Community and Cultural Norms: Emulating social trends that encourage sustainable alternatives can foster widespread adoption. Just as sunhat usage became normalized as a behavioral shift for sun protection, plastic reduction behaviors can spread when communities collectively embrace alternatives.
- Improved Waste Management Systems: Enabling reuse, reduction, collection, and recycling at local and city levels can reduce plastic leakage and support behavior that discourages single-use consumption.
- Convenient Alternatives: Providing easy, convenient non-plastic options helps shift everyday consumption habits, similar to replacing disposable plastic sunhats or accessories with reusable fabric or natural fiber alternatives.
Sharon Humphreys, from Packaging New Zealand, emphasized the importance of changing consumption habits, including both quantity and quality of consumption. Dame Juliet Gerrard noted that the transformation of packaging habits is a more complex problem than the shift in sunhat usage.
The panel is also considering the credentials that people look for when purchasing products. However, Dame Juliet Gerrard did not specify any suggestions for government incentives to affect consumption patterns.
The discussion about plastic pollution is now considering the role of psychologists in promoting behavioral change. Psychologists will use examples like the shift in schoolchildren wearing sunhats as a model for promoting mindfulness about packaging.
By combining education, policy, community values, and infrastructure to enable and normalize plastic alternatives, society can reduce plastic pollution effectively. Tools are available to understand how cultural transformations related to packaging habits can be achieved. The discussion addresses a broad, social behavioral picture related to plastic pollution.
- In the context of environmental science and sustainable living, the shift towards wearing sunhats by schoolchildren demonstrates how a cultural change, driven by awareness, education, and policy, can lead to behavioral shifts that have a positive impact on the environment.
- As part of their end-of-year report, psychologists will use the sunhat example as a model for promoting mindfulness about packaging, focusing on strategies that combine awareness and education, policy and corporate accountability, community and cultural norms, improved waste management systems, and the availability of convenient alternatives to reduce plastic pollution.
- Integrating elements of environmental-science and sustainable-lifestyle choices, such as adopting systemic, multi-level approaches, can help transform packaging habits and create a home-and-garden environment that is less reliant on single-use plastics.
