Behavioral interventions for waste reduction: a systematic review of experimental studies.
Most waste studies chase electricity and water, leaving food waste and system-level change wide open for behavior analysts to explore.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Wilson et al. (2025) gathered 99 experiments that tried to cut waste. They looked at papers that tested education, money rewards, gentle nudges, goal setting, and social pressure.
The team did not run a new experiment. They read, sorted, and mapped what others already tried.
What they found
Almost every study went after easy targets: turning off lights or taking shorter showers. Very few tried to reduce food waste or change whole systems like school cafeterias or grocery stores.
The review shows we know a lot about signs that say “turn off the tap,” but little about keeping edible food out of trash cans.
How this fits with other research
Grumstrup et al. (2025) looked only at school food programs for students with IDD. Only 5 of 27 studies passed quality checks. Wilson’s wide map now explains why: the field simply hasn’t built enough high-quality food-waste studies to review.
Fusar-Poli et al. (2017) ran one of the rare intensive feeding programs that did touch food behavior. Their positive results sit in the empty space Wilson highlights—proof that focused behavioral work on food can work, but we need more than single-case examples.
Sasson et al. (2022) found exercise alone did not cut obesity in people with ID. That null result pairs with Wilson’s call: if we want healthier, less wasteful lives, we must target behavior, not just add activities or post another sticker.
Why it matters
If your client program touches food—school lunch, group home menus, family mealtime—you are in barely-charted territory. Take Wilson’s list of tools (goals, norms, small rewards) and pilot them on food waste. Track simple data: plates scraped, leftovers weighed. Share the numbers; the field needs them.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Wasteful behavior poses major environmental, economic, and social challenges, yet the behavioral science literature on waste reduction remains fragmented. This systematic review synthesizes 99 experimental and quasi-experimental studies published between 2017 and 2021 that test behavioral interventions to reduce waste. This period captures a critical phase when global waste management systems faced unprecedented disruptions, including the 2017 launch of China’s National Sword policy, which dramatically reshaped global recycling markets and exposed critical weaknesses in international waste systems. We adopt a broad definition of waste—including both discarded materials (e.g., food, trash, recyclables) and inefficient resource use (e.g., electricity, water, fuel)—to better capture the full range of behaviors where interventions can reduce environmental impact and allow cross-domain comparisons. Our goal is to examine the behavioral interventions used, how interventions are structured, how behavior is measured, and whether they target individuals, households, communities, or broader systems. We identify six common types of behavioral interventions: education/informational feedback, social norms, economic incentives, cognitive biases and choice architecture, goal setting, and emotional appeals. Interventions targeting electricity and water use were most common, while food and solid waste remain under studied, largely due to measurement challenges. Although most studies used real-world field designs with direct behavioral outcomes, they focused heavily on individual and household behavior. This individual focus risks overlooking the structural and systemic changes needed to achieve broader, sustained reductions in waste. To advance the field, we call for greater use of community-level and system-wide interventions, investment in scalable measurement tools, and stronger collaboration between researchers, governments, and practitioners. Building on this foundation can help create more effective, scalable strategies to reduce waste across behavioral contexts.
Frontiers in Psychology, 2025 · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1561467