New Research from the Professor at the SKEMA Business School Published in the Journal of Consumer Research Explains the Limits to Neoliberal Waste Management

A new study to be published in the prestigious publication by a Professor at the SKEMA Biusiness School in the Journal of Consumer Research, examines why consumers don't dispose of the waste in their homes, and shows how that negatively impacts people's health and the environment.

RALEIGH, N.C., September 29, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Policymakers and waste managers struggle with preventing the ever increasing level of waste wrongly discarded in nature, placed in inadequate garbage/recycling/compost bins, or lingering in consumers' homes. This is usually considered as a failure of mobilizing consumers to take responsibility for properly managing their household waste.

That's the finding of a new study coming out soon in the Journal of Consumer Research, "Tensions in the Enactment of Neoliberal Consumer Responsibilization for Waste," by Hélène Cherrier, SKEMA Business School Professor of Marketing, and Meltem Türe, assistant professor in Marketing at TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Ankara, Turkey.

The Journal of Consumer research publishes empirical, methodological and theoretical papers on topics in consumer research. The multi-disciplinary journal encourages a variety of disciplinary perspectives, methods, theoretical approaches, and substantive problem areas.

The study shows that consumers ignoring or rejecting their waste responsibilities may not always be the main reason for such challenges.

The study reveals that many consumers are highly aware of their waste responsibilities and morally engaged and committed to following the various waste policies to responsibly manage their household waste.

Despite such commitment, the researchers found that neoliberal waste governance leads consumers to keep waste in their homes by superimposing consumer waste responsibilities (i.e., eliminate waste to minimize contamination, recycle to help industrial growth; prevent waste to preserve the environment,), heightening fear of loss of control, and providing waste pathways (infrastructures or networks to move waste) that are inflexible and sometimes destructive.

The authors define "household waste" as ordinary materials that lack emotional attachment and have not use or known purpose in the household. For example, empty plastic bottles, broken computers and old furniture.

Keeping waste at home is usually condemned by the governments for hindering recycling and creating health and environmental hazards. "Waste not moved from households could accumulate, contaminate and further deteriorate, which negatively impact people's health and ultimately the environment," notes Cherrier and Türe.

According to the research, "keeping—an act distinct from mere hoarding or storing—is an outcome of consumers' inability to enact their (superimposing) waste responsibility and actively create alternative ways to move waste."

Under neoliberal governance, consumers are responsibilized to manage waste-related risks in various ways: by quickly eliminating waste to minimize risks of contamination, by recycling waste to contribute to sustainable economic growth, and by preventing waste from going to landfill to minimize ecological destruction. These waste responsibilities, if overlapping or contradicting with each other or other consumer responsibilities such as childcare or work, can confuse and overwhelm consumers.

The researchers also demonstrate the tensions created by waste pathways, which are designed to move waste out of homes. To responsibly eliminate, circulate, or prevent waste, consumers need to have access to waste pathways via designated times and spaces.

Yet, consumers cannot always adjust their routines to the distinct times and locations with which waste pathways operate. Unclear guidance can also confuse consumers around how to best dispose of their waste. In other cases, consumers reject the designated pathways for their waste as it would impose waste destruction over possible waste reuses. To deal with such tensions, consumers resort to keeping waste at home and, effectively, suspend, clarify, or reappropriate their waste responsibility.

The authors of the Journal of Consumer Research paper also discuss the implications of their research for waste management actors as well as consumer researchers interested in consumer governance and responsibilization, consumer activism, sustainability, and waste disposal.

The authors argue that to facilitate the enactment of responsible waste practices, waste pathways need to maintain consistency in their design (e.g., locations, shapes, and color schemes for waste bins) and be flexible enough to accommodate household routines (e.g., flexible opening hours, customized pick-up times, hotlines for waste integration and intelligent bins for guidance).

Smart technologies could also be used to provide simple verbal and visual cues to guide consumers about how pathways work and which pathways to use for specific waste. Finally, forming strong alliances among zero waste initiatives, businesses, brands, and consumer communities (e.g., upcycling groups, swap meets, repair networks, local exchange trace systems) could enhance waste reintegration which require the mobilization of multiple capabilities (e.g., chemistry, gardening, knitting, cooking, electronic maintenance and repair).

Overall, the research highlights the need for more waste guidance and flexible waste pathways to decrease the level of waste kept at home and to help consumers effectively manage their household waste.

About the SKEMA Business School
With 10,000 students of 130+ nationalities and 54,000 graduates across 145 countries, SKEMA Business School is a global school which, through its research, its 70+ teaching programs and its international multi-site structure, trains and educates the talents needed by 21st century companies. The school is now present in six countries: three campuses in France (Lille, Sophia Antipolis, Paris), three in China (Suzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing), one in the United States (Raleigh), one in Brazil (Belo Horizonte) and one in South Africa (Stellenbosch - Cape Town), as well as a resource and Artificial Intelligence research centre in Montreal, Canada. The Faculty counts 190 professors divided into three academies (Globalisation, Innovation, Digitalisation). The Research department has five centres that represent the main aspects of management. Please visit https://www.skema.edu for more information.

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SOURCE SKEMA Business School