Waste Is an Enormous Problem. but Recycling Is the Wrong Solution

Recycling violates every principle of human-centered design, writes user-friendly design expert Don Norman. And business culture is to blame.

By Don Norman

I am proud to be one of the developers of what is today called human-centered design. That is design that always starts off understanding the needs, capabilities, and desires of people. It has four basic principles, all four of which are being violated by today’s recycling craze.

Before I get into why, let’s look at the characteristics of a good design solution. Human-centered design’s four principles are:

1. Focus on the people.
2. Solve the underlying problem, not the symptoms.
3. Everything is part of a system: Design for the system.
4. Prototype ideas, test, and refine them, over and over again.

Do recyclers focus on people? Obviously not. Everything about recycling lacks any attempt to make it understandable and easy for people to obey the proper rules. We find it difficult to find the rules that apply to where we live. The rules are continually changing. The rules that are applied where we live are often different from those where we work — or wherever we might be. And even when we find the rules, we cannot always understand them.

Recycling is only one small part of the entire system. It starts with the mining and drilling that allows us to extract raw materials from the earth. Then it includes the complex mechanical and…

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