The Importance of Green Practices to Reduce Consumption

Abstract

In modern societies, growing consumption rates lead to the depletion of the planet’s resources and the waste generation. This paper studies green practices aimed at reducing consumption, which were published in social media communities covering separate waste collection. First, we selected nine green practices regarding separate waste collection and classified them as adaptive and transformative. Adaptive practices enhance the adaptability of a society to the deteriorating environment without implying consumption reduction. Transformative practices involve reducing substance and energy consumption due to changes in collective and individual actions. Next, we collected 1987 textual posts of six communities of Tyumen region, Russia, published in social media platform VK, and found all mentions of the nine practices using content and hermeneutic analyses. Finally, we identified transformative practices, such as the practices of exchanging, refusing from purchases, sharing, repairing, and promoting sustainable consumption. The obtained results might help some decision-makers create conditions to disseminate the described practices and to introduce new social practices targeting reducing consumption. We show the possibilities of grassroots initiatives in the greening of society.