Co-designing mobile collection points with older persons to promote green attitudes and practices in Hong Kong
Abstract
Hong Kong has actively promoted various recycling campaigns over the last decade, but much improvement is still needed, as only a small portion of the region’s waste is collected for recycling in towns. By exploring the latent needs and concerns of the public through involving older people and recyclers, the recycling process can be streamlined and made more effective. This paper reports on a participative workshop in which older people, representatives of local recyclers and designers discussed future directions for the design of mobile collection points. This process was facilitated by quick models and developed through an iterative process. In this consultative exercise, the participants indicated that the public lacks motivation for recycling, despite the launch of some educational campaigns. Therefore, a series of promotional campaigns on waste sorting and clean recycling should be focused on specific groups of people to maximise the campaigns’ effectiveness. Also, the failure to fulfil the principles of universal design may cause difficulties or discomfort in using recycling facilities, which can hinder public willingness to use mobile collection points.