How social influences and pride drive consumer recycling

Governments, regulators and organisations face an array of challenges in promoting sustainability through consumer recycling

When Apple launched its trade-in program, offering consumers store credit in exchange for recycling old devices, it seemed like a straightforward way to reduce electronic waste and support its circular economy goals. However, it highlighted a persistent challenge that businesses and governments face more broadly when promoting sustainability through consumer recycling.

Many customers hesitated, primarily due to privacy concerns over personal data stored on devices. Despite Apple's assurances of secure data wiping, the fear of identity theft or exposure deterred participation. This issue reflects broader industry challenges, where individuals perceive significant risks in handing over personal electronics, especially in the absence of visible and trusted safeguards. Additionally, an emotional attachment to old devices further complicated participation. Many consumers kept outdated phones as backup devices, believing they could still serve a purpose despite their infrequent use.

Another layer of complexity arose from the trade-in value itself. While financial incentives were attractive, they often didn’t outweigh the psychological or perceived functional value of retaining an old device. This gap highlighted that economic rewards alone were insufficient to shift behaviour on a large scale.

Apple responded to these challenges by integrating pride-based messaging into its marketing, emphasising the environmental impact of recycling. Campaigns highlighted the role of customers in contributing to a greener planet, aiming to evoke a sense of accomplishment and responsibility. Additionally, the company invested in enhancing transparency about data security and simplifying the trade-in process, removing logistical and emotional barriers to participation.

Apple’s experience highlights key findings from recent research which underscores the role of pride, guilt, and peer influences in changing consumer behaviour towards recycling. The research paper, Pride or Guilt? Impacts of Consumers’ Socially Influenced Recycling Behaviours on Closed-Loop Supply Chains, reveals important insights about how social influences and emotions affect recycling behaviour and what this means for business recycling programs.

The research was the subject of Dr Wenjie Huang’s PhD thesis, and was co-authored by UNSW Business School Professor Chung-Li Tseng, Associate Professor Samuel Kirshner, former lecturer and now Ivey Business School Assistant Professor Jason Nguyen together with UNSW Business School PhD graduate and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China Associate Researcher Wenlin Chen.

The research highlights a broader issue facing manufacturers implementing closed-loop supply chains, where recycled products serve as inputs for remanufacturing. Despite early momentum, efforts to improve recycling and remanufacturing have been hindered by consumers, especially for household electronics. The International Solid Waste Association, for example, has reported persistently low recycling rates for household electronics, even in regions with well-established recycling infrastructure.

Among the many efforts to improve recycling rates, it remains critical to understand the motivations driving consumers’ recycling behaviours. Such an understanding would facilitate the design of effective consumer-targeting policies and regulations, potentially complementing those targeting manufacturers, for example, the Extended Producer Responsibility programs, in combating low recycling rates.

Understanding the psychology of recycling behaviour

The research, which was published in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, reveals important insights into how social influences and emotions affect recycling behaviour and what this means for business recycling programs.

The researchers identified that two critical mechanisms through which social influence affects an individual's pro-environmental behaviour are the emotions of pride (for recycling) and guilt (for non-recycling). Their analysis revealed that "although pride and guilt are seemingly two extremes on the same continuum, recent research provides strong evidence that socially influenced pride and guilt have significantly different impacts on pro-environmental behaviours across various contexts."

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This occurs because social comparison naturally induces competition and often makes individuals aware of their superiority or inferiority of skill, status, or position relative to others. The researchers found this comparison particularly influenced recycling decisions.

“With the increasing usage of social media, through social interactions, consumers can better acknowledge the recycling intention of their peers and trigger a comparison with their own intention, through which consumers evaluate their potential utility,” said Prof. Tseng. Depending on the strengths of the pride and guilt emotions, he explained that four equilibrium behaviours were derived, including eco-activist (100% recycling), environmentally insensitive (0% recycling), self-forgiving practitioner (partial recycling), and primarily guilt-motivated bandwagon, which could lead to either 0% or a 100% recycling rate.

Product complexity shapes recycling strategy

The study revealed that manufacturers needed different approaches based on their products' recycling difficulty. For items like paper and cardboard where recycling was straightforward, focusing on either pride or guilt could work effectively. However, for many other products, including household electronics and smartphones, the difficulty could be substantially large due to consumers' very high recycling costs.

"Apart from internal factors, such as knowledge, habit, and attitudes, the environmental psychology literature has identified social influence from friends, family, neighbours, and, more recently, contacts within wider communities and social media, as important determinants of individuals' pro-environmental and recycling behaviours," the researchers explained.

The combination of product complexity and the consumer's emotions toward recycling creates various recycling outcomes, Prof. Tseng explained. “For example, a very high difficulty for recycling and remanufacturing can well explain the situations where no one recycles. When the recycling and remanufacturing difficulty is low or moderate, stronger pride than guilt emotion can lead to 100% recycling. On the other hand, when the recycling and remanufacturing difficulty is moderate or high, stronger pride than guilt emotion yields a balancing, partial recycling behaviour. We also found that herding is primarily motivated by a stronger guilt than pride emotion,” he said.

Cultural context matters

The research revealed significant differences across cultural contexts. In markets with collectivist cultures where consumers typically exhibit stronger guilt than pride, different approaches were required compared to individualistic markets. In developing countries, for example, the lack of information, proper infrastructure, policies, and formal collection mechanisms further increases the difficulties of remanufacturing, eventually making it very difficult for profitable remanufacturing.

Under a collectivist culture, Prof. Tseng said herding may occur and it's likely that no one would recycle at all, also due to the lack of infrastructure. Interestingly, the researchers' model indicates that one possible way to lead to a positive herding outcome where everyone recycles is to impose even stronger guilt for non-recycling. “On the other hand, in a more individualistic culture, where pride is stronger than pride, different voices/opinions about recycling co-exist. Both pride- and guilt-based campaigns work to different degrees in inducing behavioural changes,” said Prof. Tseng.

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Practical applications for business

The study showed that when recycling rates were low, pride-based messaging proved most effective. However, if most peers already recycle, consumers may feel more comfortable relying on others, and thus “become self-forgiving when they fail to recycle". At this point, the research suggested guilt-based messaging became more impactful.

For businesses implementing recycling programs, the research suggests:

•   Evaluating product-specific recycling barriers and adjusting financial incentives accordingly. Complex products like electronics may require higher initial rewards to overcome consumer hesitation.
•   Considering the cultural context and existing infrastructure when designing programs for different markets.
•   Monitoring community recycling rates to optimise messaging timing. The research showed 50% participation often marked a key threshold for adjusting communication strategies.
•   Balancing emotional appeals with practical incentives, recognising that social influences can sometimes reduce the need for financial rewards.

The researchers concluded that understanding these social dynamics helps companies design more effective recycling initiatives that benefit both business outcomes and environmental sustainability goals. They also noted that according to their model win-win pathways do exist in using social influence-based interventions to increase both the manufacturer’s profit and the recycling rate. However, they noted that results might vary across different product categories and cultural contexts, suggesting the need for market-specific program adaptation.