A new report published by the Closed Loop Center for the Circular Economy sets out a practical framework aiming to increase participation in reuse, recycling and waste reduction across the U.S. and details how design can play a major role in consumer engagement.
Titled Scaling Citywide Behavior: Lessons in Consumer Behavior Design from Closed Loop Partners’ Reuse and Waste Reduction Campaigns, the report considers the impact of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) policies expanding across the country and global brands and cities investing in new circular economy infrastructure, highlighting the importance of consistent consumer engagement to drive long-term impact.
The Closed Loop Center claims to have successfully shifted consumer behaviour at scale over the past decade through citywide activations in North America, working with brands, retailers, municipalities, community groups and foodservice operators to test and refine circular solutions in real-world settings.
Informed by these consumer-facing interventions across the U.S., the new report outlines the strategies and tactics that have led to higher participation in reuse, recycling and waste reduction programs through five key drivers: friction management, simple messaging, visible infrastructure and cues, social norms and incentives. It also demonstrates how these factors work together within a broader system to influence behaviour, offering organizations a practical methodology for designing programs that achieve measurable adoption and long-term engagement at city scale.
“Adoption of new consumption habits is often framed as something wholly dependent on consumers changing their behaviour,” said Kate Daly, managing partner at Closed Loop Partners and head of the Closed Loop Center. “Our findings point to a different path that can drive change much faster: design. We’ve seen that when systems are designed to be visible and convenient and environments are optimized to shift the community norm, participation becomes the easy choice and circular systems can begin to scale.”
Drawing on in-market activations across the U.S. including in California, Arizona, Virginia and New Jersey, the report states that cities are ‘a critical proving ground’ for behaviour change, bringing together residents, businesses and infrastructure in real-world settings where reuse, refill, recycling and waste reduction solutions can be tested, measured and adapted to accelerate the circular economy at scale.
The report also highlights case studies from the Closed Loop Center’s work, including its retail bag waste reduction campaign in Denver and Tucson, led by the Consortium to Reinvent the Retail Bag which tested in-store and out-of-store interventions across more than 375 retail locations. Through social media campaigns, coordinated signage, employee engagement, customer communications and other behavioural design strategies, participating stores achieved a 5% reduction in single-use bag waste. Following the success of the initiative, the Consortium launched a second aiming to reduce reducing single-use bag waste in Southern California in 2025.
Another featured initiative is the Closed Loop Centre’s Reusable Cup Project, developed through the NextGen Consortium and said to be the ‘first’ citywide reusable cup system in the U.S. It integrated shared branding, return infrastructure, communications and business participation across all participating stores. Within twelve weeks, the initiative achieved 83% public awareness and facilitated the return of more than 220,000 reusable purple cups.
The Closed Loop Centre recommends implementing the learnings of the report at a larger scale, particularly as businesses navigate increasing regulatory requirements such as EPR legislation and emerging packaging policies in states including California. The Center adds that it continues to work with brands, retailers, municipalities and community groups to design and scale community-wide behaviour change through its Reuse Cities initiative.
In related news, the New European Reuse Alliance (New ERA) announced the first recipients of its Reuse Champions Award in May, a new annual event celebrating individuals whose ‘leadership, persistence and measurable impact’ are helping to advance reuse across Europe. The first champions include Catherine Conway, founder of the ‘world’s first’ modern zero waste shop, Unpackaged, and Alexis Dusanter, founder of Bocoloco and operator of Go Réemploi, recognized for helping to build a national reuse model in France.
We recently spoke with Carolina Lobel, senior director at the Closed Lop Center for the Circular Economy as part of the Packaging Europe podcast series. Victoria Hattersley and Lobel discussed the findings from the Petaluma Reusable Cup project, the new reuse projects the consortium has in the pipeline and what we can learn from city-scale reuse pilots.
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