Real world sustainability problems
Despite more waste bins and fines, littering is a problem in major metropolitan areas, in Finland and around the world. When bins and fines are not enough to curb littering, other avenues need to be explored. This is what was happening in the collaboration between Metropolia and the City of Helsinki in November and December 2024 during the Clean City Challenge.
The research presented by Helsinki City’s representative, gave an overall picture about:
- what the sources of litter were
- what litter prevention programmes are already doing
- an overview of the latest action plan
- the strategic targets
- how communication works
- how spending time outside (which requires people to want to be outside in public spaces) is good for health outcomes of its residents
- how implementation and monitoring are going.
It was all essential information for each participant. It showed that there are real challenges and opportunities to do some things better. It also demonstrated that it wasn’t just about infrastructure but that it was also about changing behaviours. I think the most shocking statistic that stayed in people’s minds from the information that was provided by the City of Helsinki to the participants was that on just one day, Vappu (or May Day), Helsinki City spends around €160,000 on cleaning up litter. More than 11% of the City’s annual budget is spent on this single most expensive day. Many of these facts can be found on the City of Helsinki’s Litter Free Helsinki website. In order to begin tackling these littering problems, the design thinking process and service design methods were introduced to all the participants. When trying to solve problems, it is good to have a solid process to work through. For many things, this is service design. These are the concepts of research, defining the specific problem they are solving (you cannot fix ‘littering’ in general), ideation, prototyping, and testing solutions. Through research they will begin to understand what motivates people to litter or not litter, how they feel about carrots and sticks (benefits or punishments) being used, and so on. This will help guide them as they think of the specific problem they want to solve and the ideas they come up with.
The role of service design in environmental sustainability
It is important to do this methodically. If it is done this way, it is easier to return to an earlier part of the process if what you were trying does not work out the way you intended. This is not considered a failure if you learn and iterate early enough. It is simply learning. This is also how you make solutions more sustainable in both the short term and long term. You iterate early in the process so that fewer resources have been used (and therefore wasted) and you make sure that what you are developing will be targeted to the real problem (making it as efficient as possible from the beginning).
Traditional laws around littering are not the only answer. If this were the case, there would be no littering at all. This means that there are complementary behaviour changes that need to be considered. You can only find out why people litter when you start the research process. Many reasons will be found. Not all of them are helped by more infrastructure (trash bins, etc.) or more laws. The root causes of littering need deeper understanding of the different aspects of what is driving human behaviour (Mont et al.,2014), such as:
- beliefs
- contexts
- attitudes
- feelings
- status
- other complex human issues.
These human behaviours can only be found by doing deep and impactful human-centred research; that is to say, deep, qualitative research. The quantitative data collected by the City on the litter itself is vital to understanding what the outcomes of human behaviour are, including: 90% of the waste collected on beaches is plastic and the most common type of litter on urban beaches (up to 70%) is cigarette butts. All littering is bad, but cigarette butts contain toxic chemicals that leach into the surrounding earth as well as being bad for wildlife and others as physical objects. Yet none of this data can tell you why this is happening. Service design research can find this out because it prioritises talking to people and asking relevant questions in a way that a dropdown menu or a pre-selected list of reasons cannot. Service design then takes these insights and can expertly guide the solutions to address the motivations and behaviours that actually already exist but were unseen previously. Being able to harness what people regard as important or interesting is something that can help change behaviour more easily. These ideas then are developed into products and services that can be prototyped and tested to make sure that the insights were understood properly. If not, the data is there to go back to so that you can try again. If it does work as intended, you are able to move into creating a more permanent solution fairly quickly.
Understanding motivation and behaviour
A fantastic solution to the cigarette butt issue that perfectly plays on this understanding of human behaviour and motivation is the concept of special cigarette butt bins created by the London-based charity Hubbub (they call these ballot bins). This is where people can vote by adding their cigarette butt to a choice “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” Yes or No. “Who is the best footballer?” Messi or Ronaldo. These are things people will vote for. They elicit strong emotional responses. And having these where people gather and wait, such as bus stops or train stations, will help to lesson the toxic litter that leaches into the ground.Behavioural nudging is defined by Cass Sunstein as “an intervention that maintains freedom of choice but steers people in a particular direction” (Fuscao and Sperling- Magro, 2021). This is one of the actions that is being employed in the above example of the ballot bins. Designing for behaviour change is also something that came up in the 2023 State of Service Design in Finland report as an area of service design expansion in the future. With different crises, particularly the climate crisis, needing to be addressed urgently, this kind of design is more important going forward.
Using “powers for good”
Service design is a process and a mindset that can be applied in far-reaching ways to address other urgent needs in many different issues: healthcare services, urban planning, other government service, different kinds of climate action, and so on. All these issues can be addressed for many different kinds of sustainability, not just ecological.
There are many behaviour-driven issues that need to be addressed to help communities be more sustainable and more enjoyable. We were able to bring together a group of students and the City to look at this specific issue of littering and we were able to gather some ideas that the City can proceed with that included research and understanding and some nudging. These students were able to take what they learned and make it valuable for their community. It also helped them to understand that these are issues that they can and should be involved with. They can use their “powers for good”.
What issues do you see around you that could be using service design and behaviour nudging to solve?
References
City of Helsinki, n.d. Litter-free Helsinki website. Accessed 15 December 2024.
Fusaro, R. & Sperling-Magro, J. 2021. Much anew about ‘nudging’ Interview. Strategy & Corporate Finance Insights articles of McKinsey & Company 6 August 2021. Accessed 10 February 2025.
Hubbub n.d. Website. Ballot Bins. Accessed 10 January 2025.
Mont, O., Lehner, M., and Heiskanen, E. 2014. Nudging: A Tool for Sustainable Behaviour? Stockholm: Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
Spokes, P. 2024. The State of Service Design in Finland Report 2023. Accessed 10 January 2025.
Author
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Pamela Spokes
Specialist, Turbiini (en_EN)Pamela Spokes BA, MA, MBA, AmO. Educator in service design and entrepreneurship with the Turbiini Pre-Incubator programme in English.
About the author
