Domestic Packaging Behavior

More and more people want to make their everyday consumption packaging-free. On the one hand, structures must change. On the other hand, lifestyles and the conception of how everyday individual and collective needs and wishes are fulfilled also play an important role.

The everyday routines of many people today are very resource-intensive, it is consumed much, quickly and with little effort. Among other things, tons of packaging emerges – be it plastic, glass or paper – that end up in the trash after a short time. The domestic sphere, where cooking, playing, washing, eating and living happens every day, is a crucial place for how and which day-to-day routines are shaped and reproduced.

The dissertation examines the psychological factors of domestic packaging consumption.

Research Questions

  • What individual, social, and situational conditions play a role in trying out and establishing new, non-packaged day-to-day routines in the food and drugstore sector (e.g. food cooperatives, market shopping, drugstore in-house production)?
  • How can resource-intensive needs be reflected upon, questioned and broken up?
  • What are the obstacles to overcome and ways to shape and establish packaging-free habits that meet daily needs?

With the help of surveys, interviews and experimental methods in Berlin households (Home Labs), these questions are examined in everyday life.

Contact
Klara Wenzel, M.Sc.
Zentrum Technik und Gesellschaft, TU Berlin

Hardenbergstr. 16-18, 10623 Berlin

Germany

+49 (0)30 314-29822
wenzel@ztg.tu-berlin.de