Environmental sustainability: Public housing household participation in waste and implication for public design

Environmentalists, sociologists, economists and designers have advocated the importance of environmental sustainability. Different specialists have their own perspectives in looking at the issues and giving suggestions to tackle the problems. In recent years, an increasing number of social and environmental researchers have considered the waste problems appearing in the urban living environment. Since waste disposal and its associated problems are still the major causes of environmental pollution, consequently, some researchers seek directions and ways to minimise waste disposal. Others take another perspective to see how waste can be recycled. Although waste recycling has been advocated and promoted for several decades, it is a fact that waste recycling is still unsatisfactory in many modern cities. One of the key reasons is that there is still very little household participation in waste recycling because particular living environments and lifestyles make it difficult. Based on a case study of public housing estates in Hong Kong, this paper reviews and discusses waste recycling in a densely populated city with a high waste disposal rate. By reviewing the lifestyles, living environments and facilities, the paper identifies and discusses the successes and failures of household participation in waste recycling, and suggests how public design can improve the situation.