Understanding the mechanisms of household and stakeholder engagement in a recycling ecosystem: The SDL perspective

For a recycling system to work, both stakeholders and households need to feel engaged in the process. When studying engagement in the context of recycling, it is clear that a broader view is necessary to understand the opportunities and limitations that exist among stakeholders and users. Service dominant logic is undertaken to shed new light on how stakeholders, with the household as a focal point, engage with each other in the service ecosystem. Thematic network analysis was employed using interviews with households, stakeholders, as well as workshops in a project about recycling. The analysis reveals four mechanisms (channeling information, managing different resources, understanding impact, and dynamic and time-related engagement). There are several goals and values present when stakeholders and households engage with each other. When values of different actors align, it provides a solid basis for collaboration. Engagement was also found to be time-related and linked to calculated or perceived future effects, but also required to be maintained with the integration of different resources (e.g. money, space, time, cognitive, emotional, bodily energy). In the short-term perspective, utilitarian (functional) values such as the function of the recycling house emerged essential, while the long-term perspectives included feelings about the environment or one's own contribution. Implications for waste management include the importance of recognizing the relation between, and the involvement of stakeholders and households, as well as understanding how these interact to optimize recycling systems.