Why Your Recycling Program Fails: It's Not the Technology

The transition toward a circular economy and resource recovery requires improvements not only in recycling and recovery technologies, but also in how waste management systems are designed and used. Regardless of the technological progress available, the performance of municipal and household waste management systems remains strongly determined by human behavior, social norms, and institutional arrangements. Waste management systems are mostly designed considering their technical and logistical aspects, despite being inherently sociotechnical. Social aspects influencing everyday waste sorting practices are well studied, but these results are rarely applied in designing or operating waste management infrastructure.In household waste management, users play a decisive role in determining resource recovery outcomes. Persistent challenges such as incorrect sorting and low participation rates indicate that technical solutions alone are insufficient (Rousta, Bolton and Dahlén 2016). Recent reviews emphasize that effective household waste management depends on integrating technical solutions with social, governance, and cultural dimensions, rather than relying on technology alone (Wirani, Eitiveni and Sucahyo 2024). At the same time, research has shown that studies on waste sorting behavior and collection system design have often developed in parallel, revealing a persistent gap in applying knowledge about user behavior and social contexts to the design of waste management infrastructure (Rousta, Ordoñez et al. 2017). Although the importance of integrating social and technical perspectives has been widely acknowledged, such integration remains limited in practice. This Research Topic brings together studies that explicitly integrate social aspects into resource recovery systems, with a focus on municipal and household waste. In line with circular economy principles, the collection emphasizes contributions addressing waste prevention, reuse, and recyclingThe articles included in this Research Topic collectively demonstrate how behavioral, social, educational, and institutional factors shape waste management practices and influence resource recovery outcomes.Oduro-Appiah et al. examine the social-psychological determinants of litter prevention intentions in the greater Accra metropolitan area of Ghana using an extended Reasoned Action Approach. By incorporating moral norms into the original model, the study demonstrates a substantial improvement in explanatory power, highlighting moral norms, perceived behavioral control, and attitudes as key drivers of litter prevention intentions. The findings emphasize the importance of well-designed educational and behavioral interventions that promote moral responsibility, link littering to local environmental and health impacts, and empower citizens through accessible infrastructure and participatory approaches to improve urban waste management and resilience.Behavioral dynamics are further explored by Teng et al., who examine household waste separation in rural China through the lens of behavioral spillover. Their study shows that past pro-environmental behaviors in agricultural production positively influence voluntary waste sorting through mechanisms related to environmental self-identity and subjective norms. These effects are strengthened by governance measures such as information campaigns and village regulations, illustrating how individual behavior, social norms, and institutional frameworks jointly shape resource recovery outcomes.The interaction between users and system design is addressed by Labelle and Frayret, who apply agent-based modeling to analyze a voluntary glass-bottle collection system. By explicitly incorporating social interactions and awareness diffusion through word-ofmouth, their model demonstrates that social dynamics significantly affect collection performance. Scenarios that include social interaction better reflect empirical data, highlighting the importance of accounting for social influence when designing and evaluating resource recovery infrastructure. This contribution illustrates how sociotechnical modeling can bridge behavioral insights and technical system planning Education is identified as a foundational social force for long-term circular economy transitions by Kosta et al., who investigate primary school teachers' awareness and perceptions of sustainability and circular economy concepts in Greece. Their findings reveal strong motivation among educators alongside clear gaps in curriculum integration, teacher training, and institutional support. The study emphasizes that early education plays a crucial role in shaping future attitudes and behaviors related to resource use and recovery, positioning education systems as key enablers of long-term circular economy transformation.Taken together, these contributions demonstrate that resource recovery is deeply embedded in social practices, learning processes, governance arrangements, and system usability. The studies collectively show that social aspects should not be treated as external constraints, but as integral components of effective resource recovery systems.The contributions in this Research Topic highlight that improving resource recovery requires more than technological optimization. Social dimensions, including norms, identity, education, governance, and user interaction, play a decisive role in how waste management systems perform in practice and should therefore be addressed regularly through education and behavioral interventions to improve recovery rates.Future research should continue to operationalize sociotechnical approaches across different contexts and scales, including longitudinal studies, participatory design methods, and integrated assessment frameworks that combine behavioral and technical indicators. Rather than conceptualizing waste management systems as stable and static infrastructure, future development would benefit from recognizing them as dynamic systems co-created through users' participation.