Waste Management in Cardiff

Understanding Waste Minimisation Practices at the Individual and Household Level Submitted in candidature for the degree of PhD in the year 2014 by Claire Louise Cutforth Cardiff University 1 Summary Over recent years, the issue of how to manage waste sustainably has intensified for both researchers and policy makers. From a policy perspective, the reason for this intensification can be traced to European legislation and its transposition into UK policy. The Welsh Government in particular has set challenging statutory targets for Local Authorities. Such targets include increases in recycling and composting as well as waste reduction and reuse targets. From a research perspective there has been dissatisfaction with behavioural models and their willingness to explore alternative social science thinking (such as leading approaches to practice). Despite policy interest in sustainable waste practices, there remains little research which focuses specifically on waste minimisation at the individual or household level. What research exists focuses on pro-environmental or recycling behaviour, and tends to focus upon values, intention and behavioural change, rather than on what actual practices occur, and for what reasons. This research focuses on what practices take place in order to access a more complex range of reasons why such practices take place. The methodology adopts a qualitative approach to uncovering practices in a variety of contexts, and discovers a number of key insights which underpin waste minimisation practice. This thesis demonstrates that waste minimisation performances take place, but often do so ‗unwittingly‘. Coupled to this, many witting or unwitting waste minimisation actions occur for reasons other than concern for the environment. Furthermore, this research suggests that practices (and their motivations) vary dependent upon the context in which they occur. In general, three key themes were found to be significant in influencing the take up and transfer of practice: cost, convenience, and community. As a waste practitioner, the researcher is able to engage with these themes in order to suggest future directions for waste minimisation policy as well as research. 2 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Alex Franklin and Dr Andrew Flynn for their help and encouragement throughout the course of my study. My gratitude also extends to my employers, Cardiff Council, not only for their financial support, but for allowing me the time to undertake this research. In particular I would like to thank Tara, Jane and David for their support. 3 Table of Contents Table of Contents ............................................................................................ 4 Index of Figures .............................................................................................. 6 Index of Tables ............................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1: Understanding Waste Minimisation Practices .............................. 8 1.1 Waste Minimisation Practice ............................................................................... 8 1.2 Waste Policy and Regulation ............................................................................. 10 1.3 Waste Minimisation ........................................................................................... 10 1.4 Researching the Individual and Household ....................................................... 13 1.5 A Turn to Practice .............................................................................................. 16 1.6 Research Questions ............................................................................................ 20 1.7 Research Location .............................................................................................. 22 1.8 Practitioner Based Research .............................................................................. 23 1.9 Contributions to Policy ...................................................................................... 23 1.10 Thesis Overview .............................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2: Waste Policy and Regulation ...................................................... 30 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 30 2.1.1 Waste Management Policy and Practice in the UK .................................... 30 2.1.2 UK Reliance on Landfill ............................................................................. 32 2.1.3 Economic Factors ........................................................................................ 33 2.1.4 Attitudes to Waste ....................................................................................... 35 2.1.5 Consumption ............................................................................................... 38 2.2 Policy and Regulation in the UK ....................................................................... 41 2.2.1 Waste and Recycling Legislation ................................................................ 43 2.2.2 Target Based Incentives .............................................................................. 45 2.2.3 Combined Fiscal and Target-Based Regulations ........................................ 46 2.2.4 Fiscal Incentives .......................................................................................... 48 2.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 3: Overcoming the Value-Action Gap ............................................ 52 3.1 Gaps, gaps and more gaps .................................................................................. 52 3.2 Pro-Environmental Behaviour ........................................................................... 54 3.2.1 Actions Vs Values: The Value Action Gap ................................................ 57 3.2.2 Reflections on Behavioural Approaches ..................................................... 61 3.3 Witting and Unwitting Practice ......................................................................... 62 3.4 Everyday Practice .............................................................................................. 64 3.5 Promoting Practices ........................................................................................... 68 3.5.1 Identifying Themes Relating to Material Practices .................................... 71 3.5.2 The Three C‘s (1): Cost .............................................................................. 73 3.5.3 The Three C‘s (2): Convenience ................................................................. 74 3.5.4 The Three C‘s (3): Communities ................................................................ 77 3.5.5 Context ........................................................................................................ 79 3.6 Spill-over and the Transfer of Practice .............................................................. 82 3.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 4: Accessing Practices – Methods and Principles ........................... 85 4.1 Waste Minimisation Practices: What, Where and Why? ................................... 85 4.1.1 Methodological Principles .......................................................................... 86 4.1.2 Structure and Agency .................................................................................. 86 4.1.3 Positivism and Non-positivism ................................................................... 87 4.2 Methods and Principles: An Everyday Practice Approach ................................ 88 4 4.3 Research Context ............................................................................................... 90 4.3.1 Waste Arisings ............................................................................................ 93 4.3.2 Recycling Performance in Cardiff .............................................................. 95 4.3.3 Cardiff and Waste Minimisation ............................................................... 101 4.3.4 Timescale of the Study .............................................................................. 103 4.3.5 Number of Participants ............................................................................. 104 4.4 Recruitment ...................................................................................................... 106 4.4.1 Recruitment Phase 1 ................................................................................. 106 4.4.2 Recruitment: Phase 2 ................................................................................ 107 4.4.3 Recruitment: Phase Three ......................................................................... 109 4.4.4 The Nomination Complex ......................................................................... 110 4.4.5 Reflections on Recruitment ....................................................................... 111 4.5 Interviews ......................................................................................................... 112 4.5.1 Accessing Practices: Interviewee ‗Diaries‘ .............................................. 117 4.5.2 Accessing Practices: ‗Show Us Your Rubbish‘ ........................................ 118 4.5.3 Accessing practices: Identifying

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