Digitalization boosted recycling: Gamification as an inspiration for young adults to do enhanced waste sorting

In August 2018, the City of Kuopio, student apartments (Kuopion Opiskelija-asunnot Oy), regional waste management and recycling company (Jätekukko Oy), and Savonia University of Applied Sciences set up an event called 3R Game Jam. The aim of the event was to different sources of motivation, which could improve young adults’ interests towards recycling. Additionally, the goal was to study gamified solutions, designed to boost recycling activities within the students age group. The game called “Fox the Recycler” won the competition and was selected for further development. In the fall of 2018, the next version of the game was piloted in student apartments where 90 % of all young adults (250) installed the game. The best rate of monthly users was 235, daily users over 50 to 30 persons. After the pilot, the recycling rate of biowaste increased from 76 % to 97 %. The recycling rate of plastic also increased significantly: 84 % of the inhabitants currently recycle plastic, while only 25 % of them did so before the pilot. The study found that the gamification-based solutions can be used efficiently to support a change in consumers’ behavior. such solutions have a wide range of applications in many different recycling and other contexts, and in different environments. The 2.0 version of the game will be piloted for primary school children to further study educational and cultural change in recycling during 2019.