Failure of household recycling participation in a densely populated city: Insights for public design

Recent studies have advocated the importance and necessity of household participation in recycling. However, this recommendation has not been successfully implemented in many cities due to different social, cultural, environmental and other physical factors. This paper reiterates the importance of household participation in recycling and uses a case study in the densely populated city of Hong Kong to identify the causes of failure in household recycling participation. The paper goes on to identify a number of issues arising from the existing design of recycling facilities that should be addressed to overcome the failure of public recycling initiatives and to bring about a greater level of household participation in recycling.