Title: Waste prevention: a misunderstood concept

Authors: Mickaël Dupré

Addresses: IAE de Brest, UBO, 12 Rue de Kergoat, 29238 Brest, France

Abstract: Waste prevention has recently become a core topic of waste management. For 30 years, public policies have focused on waste sorting communication. More recently, communication has targeted citizens to promote waste prevention. Waste sorting is a clear concept among the public, but waste prevention is not as clear. Our study aims to explore the social representation of waste prevention, in order to identify cognitions related to this concept and thus help understand how citizens deal with it. The results prove that waste prevention is largely understood as waste sorting. We formulated some advices for public policies.

Keywords: waste prevention; waste reduction; communication; public policies; social representations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2018.100831

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2018 Vol.21 No.1/2/3/4, pp.150 - 169

Received: 20 Mar 2018
Accepted: 20 Dec 2018
Published online: 18 Jul 2019 *

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