Background: Household waste segregation is central to effective solid waste management and circular economy goals, yet the development processes and content specifications of segregation interventions are often poorly documented, limiting transparency, reproducibility, and contextual adaptation. Objectives: This manuscript documents how multi-method formative evidence was synthesised and translated into a Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) toolkit delivered by community volunteers to promote household waste segregation in an ongoing cluster-randomised controlled trial in urban India. Trial outcomes and independent formative study findings are not reported here. Methods: The intervention was developed over 12 months using the Behaviour Change Wheel and reported using the GUIDED checklist. Evidence was drawn from a systematic review, qualitative studies with households and service providers, crowdsourcing activities, policy and grey literature, waste composition analysis, volunteer logbooks, and stakeholder consultations. Barriers and enablers were classified using the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability-Behaviour model, while APEASE criteria guided the selection of feasible intervention components. Results: The development process produced three outputs: a behavioural specification of household-level waste segregation, a feasibility-screened set of intervention strategies, and a mapping of behavioural determinants to Behaviour Change Techniques and delivery tools. Key barriers included limited knowledge, weak motivation, and infrastructural constraints. The final BCC toolkit included household segregation bins, volunteer-delivered interpersonal communication, flipbooks and print materials, persuasive messaging with feedback and reminders, and low-cost non-monetary rewards. The toolkit was organised into 24 structured sessions and refined through field-testing, waste composition findings, volunteer feedback, and stakeholder input. Conclusion: The intervention was developed through a theory-driven, participatory, and context-sensitive process. This manuscript provides a transparent account of how formative evidence was translated into a feasible BCC package, while emphasizing that APEASE ratings should be reassessed before adaptation to other municipal or implementation contexts.

Introduction: Effective management of municipal solid waste (MSW)is a persistent challenge in India, where rapid urbanization and limited infrastructure contribute to unscientific disposal practices. Household (HH) waste constitutes the largest share of MSW, yet reliable data on its generation and composition remain scarce. This study presents a baseline assessment conducted in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, as part of the I-MISS intervention on HH waste segregation.

Methodology: A cross-sectional survey was undertaken among 215 HHs across slum and non-slum areas. Waste was collected daily for seven consecutive days, sorted into 23 predefined fractions, and analyzed for per capita and per HH-level generation, composition, and mis-sorting.

Results: Findings reveal an average daily per capita generation of 141.0 g and 146.7 g,and per HH generation of 651.4 g. Organic waste formed the largest fraction (69.1%), followed by plastics, paper, and textiles. Nearly half (48.1%) of the dry waste stream was mis-sorted, mainly due to organic and sanitary fractions being placed incorrectly. Mis-sorting was more pronounced in slum HHs, particularly for sanitary and hazardous sharp waste. Statistical analysis highlighted that family size, house type, and socio-economic status (SES) significantly influenced waste generation patterns, with smaller HHs and middle-income groups producing more waste.

Discussion: The study underscores the urgent need to strengthen HH-level segregation through targeted behavioral interventions and improved infrastructure. Emphasizing composting, recycling, and the safe disposal of sanitary and hazardous waste can enhance resource recovery and reduce environmental risks. These findings provide crucial evidence to inform urban waste management policies and design locally appropriate, sustainable strategies for Indian cities.

Effective solid waste management depends on household-level segregation, yet this remains inadequate in many low- and middle-income countries. While previous studies emphasize infrastructural and behavioural challenges, this paper highlights an under-recognised factor—terminology and classification ambiguity. To examine how inconsistent and unintuitive waste-related terms, signage, and bin colour codes impede effective source segregation in urban low- and middle-income countries particularly in India and South Asia. A structured narrative review of academic and grey literature, including national policies, municipal regulations, and information-education-communication materials, was conducted to explore how misaligned classification systems affect public understanding and compliance. Households often struggle to categorise waste due to overlapping or poorly defined categories (e.g., dry vs. biodegradable), inconsistent colour codes across jurisdictions, and limited culturally relevant communication. This ambiguity, compounded by spatial and economic constraints, leads to widespread non-segregation, contamination of recyclables, and weak policy implementation. We call for standardised and culturally contextualised classification frameworks with intuitive labelling and harmonised colour coding. Integrating clear, locally resonant communication into governance systems can significantly improve segregation behaviour and sustainability outcomes in urban low- and middle-income countries. Beyond infrastructure and awareness drives, semantic clarity and design of waste communication are crucial for enabling behavioural change. Addressing these overlooked dimensions can strengthen urban resilience, improve policy coherence, and accelerate transitions toward circular economy practices in low- and middle-income countries.

Increasing amount of municipal solid waste is a growing global concern harming the health of the humans and animals and affecting the sustainability of the environment. While citizens are expected to take responsibility for waste sorting and segregation, limited engagement, lack of awareness, and dependency on others often hinder effective waste management at the source. This study aims to understand participants’ perceptions of waste segregation and management using a photovoice-based crowdsourcing approach. Through qualitative analysis of photographs and accompanying narratives submitted in a national contest, we explored how individuals interpret waste-related challenges, their motivations or barriers to action, and developed a conceptual framework. While many participants demonstrated awareness of the consequences of poor waste management and advocated for the principles of reduce, reuse, and recycle, a key theme that emerged was the lack of community participation and engagement. The conceptual framework was mapped against the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Motivation-Opportunity-Ability-Behaviour model to contextualize and highlight the interaction of attitudes, perceived norms, and abilities. This study highlights the utility of participatory, photovoice-driven methods in shaping effective and inclusive waste management strategies.

Food waste is a critical issue in the food service sector, including nursing homes. Effective monitoring of food waste is essential for its prevention and valorisation, though it presents challenges, especially for long-term tracking. This study introduces a novel smart bin-based measurement method for quantifying and characterising food waste in nursing homes. The method integrates an automation of data collection, structured data processing, and multi-level categorisation. A case study has been conducted in one nursing home in Borås, Sweden, to assess the feasibility of the method. The preliminary results were presented from multiple perspectives, including weekly waste across all meals and overall waste distribution by type and composition, highlighting the method’s versatility. On average, lunch waste amounted to 78 g per portion, comprising 52 % plate waste and 48 % serving waste. For dinner, waste averaged 58 g per portion, with 68 % plate waste and 31 % serving waste. The largest contributors to waste were mixed dishes and potatoes. This study demonstrates the method’s effectiveness in capturing food waste dynamics with high granularity and potential for scalable, long-term food waste monitoring in institutional settings, offering a foundation for AI-driven classification and data-driven interventions.

Among the methods commonly used for quantifying food waste in households, there are limitations that affect the reliability of quantification results. To address these, this study used an automated quantification tool to objectively and with high precision quantify food waste in 28 Swedish households for an extended period, reaching a total of 3945 quantification days. The results showed that the average daily waste amounted to 0.159 kg per person. Recorded food waste displayed a large variation between days, weeks and months, suggesting that long-term quantification is necessary for precision. As the results indicated, between 115 and 569 quantification days is necessary to provide an average estimate with a ± 10 % precision. This study presents empirical evidence demonstrating the feasibility and opportunities of automated food waste quantification, emphasizing the importance of extended measurement periods, high-frequency data collection, and minimal user intervention on designing effective waste tracking systems.

Fungal fermentation is a promising strategy to secure affordable, nutritious and sustainable food. Encouraging engagement with fungi-based food is crucial to contribute to social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Reflections can trigger a sense of meaning in engaging in activities and with resources. The aim of this mixed methods study was to explore perceptions of whether participants think their own engagement with fungi-based food is consequential. To do so, the study explored ecoethical reflections relating to whether participants thought engaging with fungi-based food is beneficial or not beneficial for the environment. This study also explored glocal reflections of whether participants thought their own engagement with this kind of food is beneficial or not beneficial in ways that extend to people around them (i.e., local population) or people in other parts of the world (i.e., global population). N = 160 participants completed questionnaires. Most participants expressed a positive outlook, believing that embracing fungi-based food could promote increased sustainability and overall well-being for humans and the environment in numerous different ways. The perceptions that participants shared can affect and trigger conscious engagement with fungi-based food locally with awareness of its global impact which, in turn, can promote well-being for individuals and extend to the population level and thereby contribute to efforts at archiving sustainable development. Nevertheless, the findings highlight a necessity for more information to enable individuals to engage in knowledgeable reflections and, ultimately, act upon their values and what is meaningful to them. The results are important for future development and conceptualization of not only fungi-based food but also other food that is expected to contribute to sustainable development.

Waste segregation at source, particularly at the household level, is an integral component of sustainable solid waste management, which is a critical public health issue. Although multiple interventions have been published, often with contradictory findings, few authors have conducted a comprehensive systematic synthesis of the published literature. Therefore, we undertook a systematic review to synthesize all published interventions conducted in any country in the world which targeted household-level waste segregation with or without additional focus on recycling or composting.

Following PRISMA guidelines, Web of Science, Medline, Global Health, and Google Scholar were searched using a search strategy created by combining the keywords ‘Waste’, ‘Segregation’, and ‘Household’. Two-stage blinded screening and consensus-based conflict resolution were done, followed by quality assessment, data extraction, and narrative synthesis.

8555 articles were identified through the database searches and an additional 196 through grey literature and citation searching. After excluding 2229 duplicates and screening title abstracts of 6522 articles, 283 full texts were reviewed, and 78 publications reporting 82 intervention studies were included in the data synthesis.

High methodological heterogeneity was seen, excluding the possibility of a meta-analysis. Most (n = 60) of the interventions were conducted in high-income countries. Interventions mainly focused on information provision. However, differences in the content of information communicated and mode of delivery have not been extensively studied. Finally, our review showed that the comparison of informational interventions with provision of incentives and infrastructural modifications needs to be explored in-depth. Future studies should address these gaps and, after conducting sufficient formative research, should aim to design their interventions following the principles of behaviour change.

Improper disposal of household waste adversely affects both the environment and human health. Effective household waste segregation relies on the collaboration of program managers, service providers, and household members. This study focused on service providers’ and program managers’ perspectives on household waste segregation in India. We conducted 25 semi-structured interviews with 13 program managers and 12 service providers in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, translated and analyzed through thematic analysis. Three key themes emerged: 1) Optimizing household waste segregation—observations from service providers and program managers, 2) Navigating the current landscape of household waste segregation, and 3) Unveiling the driving forces behind household waste segregation. Participants emphasized the need for a comprehensive strategy integrating incentives, community education, and engagement, along with the development of adequate infrastructure. Building provider-resident trust, equipping facilities, and ensuring timely waste collection were identified as crucial for public compliance. Program managers and service providers also stressed the importance of targeted educational interventions to enhance waste segregation skills through proactive community engagement.