I. The "At a Glance" Summary

II. The Deep Dive: Process and Rationale

A. Discovery & Research

Understanding why recycling fails despite good intentions

This project began with a clear contradiction: many residents expressed pro-environmental values, yet recycling behavior in residences remained inconsistent or absent. Our research aimed to uncover the systemic reasons behind this intention–action gap.

Primary Research
We conducted surveys and in-depth interviews with residential college students, supported by observation and touchpoint mapping across dining halls, rooms, lift lobbies, refuse rooms, and Resource Sorting Stations (RSS).

Existing Resource Sorting Station at NUS Tembusu College

Key patterns emerged:
- Students recycled more consistently at home than on campus
- Convenience was the dominant barrier, more influential than guilt or environmental awareness
- Recycling infrastructure felt distant, unpleasant, and cognitively demanding
- Contamination anxiety (“one wrong item ruins the bin”) also discouraged participation

Spatial mapping revealed structural issues:
- General waste disposal was always within reach, yet recycling was not
- RSS were often remote, unsheltered, and overloaded with signage information
- The refuse-room experience (smell, crampedness, discomfort) actively pushed students away from sorting behaviors

Secondary Research
We benchmarked international systems and studied behavioral frameworks, anchoring the project in:
- Social Practice Theory (materials, meanings, skills)
- Habit formation principles (stable cues + repetition)
- Motivation and goal framing (short-term goals, social norms)

Core Insight
The problem wasn’t that students “don’t care.” It was that the surrounding environment makes throwing away effortless and recycling effortful. Recycling needed to be redesigned as a supported practice, not just framed as an individual's moral choice.

B. Define & Ideate

Reframing recycling as an environmental “recipe” with actionable ingredients
Problem Framing
Instead of designing isolated nudges, we asked:

How might we design a supportive residential environment that enables students who already want to recycle to do so consistently and correctly, without relying on constant reminders or enforcement?

This became the foundation of The Recycling Blueprint: a framework that breaks the seemingly abstract Social Practice Theory into concrete design ingredients that can be applied cohesively.

Target User: “Would-be Recyclers”
A key strategic decision was to design for the majority segment we observed:
students who want to recycle, but aren’t doing it consistently right now.
Rather than trying to “convert” the apathetic first, the Blueprint mobilises this crucial middle group as the engine for cultural normalisation.

Framework Lens: Social Practice Theory

We used the three elements as a design checklist for action:
- Materials: tools + infrastructure that make recycling physically easy
- Skills: the know-how and decision logic to recycle correctly
- Meanings: motivation, norms, identity, and community significance that sustain the practice

Ideation Directions

Concept exploration focused on:
- Making recycling just slightly easier than general waste disposal (through environment + policy alignment)
- Using goal tracking progress as the primary prompt for motivated users
- Using subjective norms as a prompt for underachievers
- Teaching a recycling thought-process, not an impossible exhaustive list
- Reinforcing identity through end-of-semester reflection on impact

C. Develop, Prototype & Refine

Testing what actually shifts behavior in a residence context
We prototyped an opt-in program and tested modular components through a short pilot with actual student residents and feedback loops. Our evaluation focused on what genuinely reduced friction, increased confidence, and sustained follow-through.

What we consistently learned:
- Structure beats incentives: clear weekly goals created stronger follow-through than purely financial stakes
- Quantified progress is a nudge by itself for motivated users
- Peer-based prompting only works if it’s non-confrontational and culturally native (residence norms matter)
- Education must reduce mental load by teaching decision logic, not just dumping information

These learnings directly shaped the final Blueprint framework and program design.

III. Final Product & Reflection

Final Outcome: The Recycling Blueprint framework that works on an Opt-In Program (“the recipe”)
The Recycling Blueprint
The final output is not just a set of tools, it is a systematic framework that translates Social Practice Theory into a roadmap for action. Like a recipe, it ensures the right “ingredients” are applied together so recycling can become a consistent practice.

The framework guides implementation across five actionable ingredients:

1. Activate Intention (Buy-in)

2. Make Recycling Easy (Environment + Policy Alignment)

3. Prompt Through Progress (Goals + Feedback at the RSS)

4. Prompt Through Social Norms (Peer-to-peer nudges for underachievers)

5. Build Competence + Meaning (Guide + end-of-semester impact reflection)

How the Framework Translates Into an Actual Program for NUS (Designed for “Would-be Recyclers”)

We demonstrated the framework through an opt-in semester-long program designed to mobilise would-be recyclers, students who already want to recycle, but need the environment to make it achievable.

A) Activate Intention: Buy-in as a commitment device
Although would-be recyclers have latent motivation, the program introduces a buy-in deposit system to turn desire into committed intention by leveraging loss aversion. It creates “skin in the game” without relying on long-term punishment.

B) Make Recycling Easy: Centralised disposal + personal recycling bag
We reframed “easy” as a relative condition: recycling must compete with the convenience of throwing away. By pairing a policy shift that centralises disposal behavior, and a personal recycling bag for in-room accumulation, the system makes recycling and general waste disposal comparable in effort, reducing the everyday friction gap that currently kills follow-through.

C) Prompt Through Progress: RSS tracking + weekly goal tied to deposit refund
For would-be recyclers, the strongest prompt is not a reminder, it’s visible progress.
At the RSS, the program provides automatic tracking of an individual’s recycling rate, allowing residents to:
- monitor their performance after every disposal,
- compare against a short-term weekly goal, and
- earn back their initial buy-in through meeting meaningful targets aligned to NUS recycling benchmarks.

This ensures the goal isn’t decorative, it is rewarding, accounted for, and behavior-shaping.

D) Prompt Underachievers via Subjective Norms: “digital chalking” reminders
For participants who fall behind, the program shifts from goal prompting to subjective norms. Building on residence culture (e.g., “chalking on one another's room doors” as non-confrontational communication), committed recyclers can write digital reminders that underachievers encounter naturally the next time they use the RSS, prompting them without direct confrontation.

E) Build Know-how: a guide that teaches the thought-process
Instead of attempting an exhaustive list of recyclables, we designed a recycling guide that teaches decision logic, the thought-process behind correct sorting. Designed to “live in the room,” it functions as a stable reference point whenever uncertainty appears.

F) Reinforce Meaning: end-of-semester impact summary
Finally, the program closes the loop by summarising residents’ impact in relatable terms, helping participants internalise their contribution and translate action into stronger environmental attitudes, supporting intrinsic motivation beyond the program.

Reflection

This project strengthened my ability to design behavior change as a system, not a message. The most important lesson was that sustainable practices don’t scale through persuasion alone, they scale through environment design.
Like cooking, recycling succeeds when the right conditions exist: access, cues, feedback, norms, and know-how, all applied cohesively. The Recycling Blueprint formalises these “ingredients” into a practical framework that stakeholders can implement, iterate, and scale across NUS residences.

Value Creation
The Recycling Blueprint creates value by removing the everyday friction that prevents well-intentioned students from recycling consistently. By providing clear structure, accessible tools, and immediate feedback, the framework enables correct recycling with confidence, reduces contamination anxiety, and transforms recycling from an occasional effort into a supported daily practice. At a community level, it activates “would-be recyclers” as cultural drivers, strengthening shared responsibility without relying on enforcement. For NUS, it offers a practical, scalable framework that improves recycling quality while generating behavioral insights to inform future sustainability initiatives.

Future Vision
Designed as a framework rather than a fixed program, the Recycling Blueprint can scale across residences and adapt to different infrastructure and participation levels. In the near term, it can evolve through modular rollout, improved feedback systems, and digital expansion of recycling guidance. In the long term, the framework points toward a shift in campus sustainability—from persuading individuals to designing environments where recycling, and other sustainable practices, happen naturally because the system makes them easy, meaningful, and socially supported.