Society, Innovation and environment

User-Involvement Leads to More Sustainable Waste Management

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User-driven innovation can lead to more sustainable waste management. Together with the waste management firm Vestforbrænding design researchers are exploring new ways to reduce waste and increase recycling through dialogue with the users. As part of the Design-Anthropological Innovation Model (DAIM) project, design researchers have accompanied garbage collectors on their routes in order to develop a better understanding of user needs. The experiences from this process have already led to improvements in waste processing at Vestforbrænding.

By Irene Houstrup

The average Dane produces seven kg (15 lb) of garbage a day. More than 80 percent of the household waste that is incinerated today could be recycled if it is sorted correctly. This means a substantial potential for more environmentally friendly waste management, and design researchers from The Danish Design School are currently working with Vestforbrænding and others to develop new and better methods for processing garbage.

Active User-Involvement in the Pilot project

The collaboration forms the basis of a pilot project that is associated with the interdisciplinary research project Design-Anthropological Innovation Model (DAIM), which is based at The Danish Design School.

In the DAIM project, the design researchers work with Vestforbrænding and the other project partners to develop user-centred design-anthropological innovation models. DAIM combines active user-involvement with anthropological studies of everyday life and design-based conceptualisations of the future.
"DAIM is about generating new knowledge through user studies from a design-anthropological research angle and then using this knowledge to develop a model for more effective ways of organising innovation processes. In the waste management pilot project, we have tested the model in collaboration with Vestforbrænding. The objective of the pilot project was to explore new ways of recycling and waste reduction through user-driven innovation," says Joachim Halse, a design researcher in the DAIM project and a research assistant professor at The Danish Design School.

Joachim Halse explains that the underlying idea of the DAIM project is to develop methods and models that will be useful in a wide range of industries and which can help private companies as well as public organisations become more innovative and user-oriented.

Complaint Processing Time Cut in Half

In the pilot project design researchers from The Danish Design School together with staff from Vestforbrænding and designers from the design firms 3PART and 1508 carried out anthropological field studies related to waste management, such as mapping the behaviour of local residents and waste collectors or actively involving users and garbage collectors in finding new solutions to problems due to improper waste sorting. Based on these field studies, the design researchers have developed a toolkit which the project managers at Vestforbrænding can use to generate innovation in relation to the company’s processes, customer service and communication. The toolkit includes communication, debate and process management materials that can be targeted to a specific project.

The design researchers in the DAIM project have developed a toolkit that includes communication, debate and process management materials that can be targeted to specific projects. The toolkit is already in use at Vestforbrænding. Photo: The DAIM project.

And although Vestforbrænding has only just begun to implement the experiences that have been gained through the pilot project, Development Consultant Dan Boding-Jensen at Vestforbrænding says that the firm has already seen positive results.
"For example, our Customer Service staff have joined the waste collectors on their routes, and that has given them insights and knowledge that have enabled them to process customer complaints twice as fast. And the better conditions we can offer our customers, the more waste is going to be recycled – to the benefit of the environment," says Dan Boding-Jensen.

Simple but Crucial Changes in Behaviour

Another initiative springing from the DAIM pilot project is an effort to replace the black garbage bags with clear ones. This has led to much better waste sorting, which means that far less garbage is incinerated and is recycled instead.
"The pilot project has shown us that small, simple adjustments can shift a lot of garbage from incineration to recycling, which is a big plus for the environment," says Dan Boding-Jensen.

He points out that the experiences gained as a result of the DAIM project have generated a greater understanding of the factors capable of changing both the users’ and Vestforbrænding’s own behaviour.
"One of the things we have learned at Vestforbrænding is that the users don’t always read the folders on waste sorting; instead the communication needs to be situation-specific and be present where the user or the waste collectors carry out the actions you are trying to affect," says Dan Boding-Jensen.

Design researchers and designers doing the rounds with waste collectors, customer service staff, a janitor and local residents. The design researchers and designers ask questions and help find new answers.  Photo: The DAIM project.

The Toolkit in Use at Vestforbrænding

Vestforbrænding is now in the process of transferring the experiences from the DAIM project to other parts of the company, for example by offering courses in user-oriented approaches based on the toolkit that was developed in the pilot project. Vestforbrænding has also hired an anthropologist who is doing field studies to document how the users go about sorting their garbage.
"If the transfer of the DAIM project approach to user-involvement is successful at Vestforbrænding, we hope to be able to share the methods with the 19 municipalities that own Vestforbrænding. In the long term, the methods could also be shared with other utility companies: electricity, water etc.," says Dan Boding-Jensen.

Knowledge and Methods from DAIM Can Be Shared with Others

Joachim Halse says that the design researchers in the DAIM project are currently working to incorporate the knowledge generated in the pilot project into the final version of the Design-Anthropological Innovation Model.
"The main effect of the DAIM pilot project is the developmental and user-involving approach. When we initiated the pilot project we saw that Vestforbrænding was not incorporating the garbage collectors’ practical everyday knowledge into the planning of the work, and this meant that much valuable knowledge that might have led to better waste sorting and thus a higher degree of recycling was lost," says Joachim Halse.

He adds that by taking a user-oriented approach in the areas addressed by the pilot project, Vestforbrænding has been able to create entirely new spaces of possibility for waste sorting, and that the company now has a set of instruments for process change and user communication.

In February 2010, experiences from the pilot project will be disseminated as part of the overall DAIM project; at that time, the innovation model will be made available to others, both private and government enterprises.

Cover photo: The DAIM project.