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michaela barnett

As seen in: Nature, Yahoo News, Earther, Gizmodo, The Conversation, Phys.org, Salon, UVA Today, Inverse, BusinessMirror and
Covers:  sustainability, climate, science, policy, waste

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michaela barnett’s Biography

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Michaela Barnett is a sustainability scientist and science communicator. Michaela has a B.S. in Sustainability Science from Furman University and a PhD from the University of Virginia, where she researched waste systems. Her work has appeared in MIT Sloan Management Review, Gizmodo, Salon, The Conversation, Behavioral Scientist, and many more.

michaela barnett’s Journalist Portfolio

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Decades of public messages about recycling have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste

Decades of public messages about recycling have crowded out more sustainable ways to manage waste

In our research on sustainability, the public often fails to understand waste management

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Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to ma...

Decades of public messages about recycling in the US have crowded out more sustainable ways to ma...

New research shows that Americans may have absorbed public messaging about the importance of recycling too we…

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"Urgency and Agency": Michael Mann on Conquering Climate Despair - By Michaela Barnett - Behavior...

"Urgency and Agency": Michael Mann on Conquering Climate Despair - By Michaela Barnett - Behavior...

The fossil fuel industry has come up with sneaky new tactics to keep us from acting on climate change. Michae…

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Research Lead: Political Civility, Not Compromise, the Pandemic and Human Nature, Setting Better ...

Research Lead: Political Civility, Not Compromise, the Pandemic and Human Nature, Setting Better ...

The Research Lead is a monthly digest connecting you to noteworthy academic and applied research from around …

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Research Lead: Parliamentarians on Twitter, Replicating the Door in the Face Technique, Gender Ga...

Research Lead: Parliamentarians on Twitter, Replicating the Door in the Face Technique, Gender Ga...

The Research Lead is a monthly digest connecting you to noteworthy academic and applied research from around …

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Research Lead: Hypocrisy, Soccer's Geisterspiele, the Causation Taboo, Reasons to Doubt Anti-Bias...

Research Lead: Hypocrisy, Soccer's Geisterspiele, the Causation Taboo, Reasons to Doubt Anti-Bias...

The Research Lead is a monthly digest connecting you to noteworthy academic and applied research from around …

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Articles

Waste Waste... Don't Tell Me: Investigating the Bias Toward Recycling Over Reduction and Reuse

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By Patrick Hancock, michaela barnett, Dan Heath Verified
| Behavioral Scientist Verified
Recycling captures less than a quarter of waste in the United States. Take plastics, a particularly pernicious waste material: every year, some 400 million metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide, more than the weight of all 8 billion humans combined. Less than 10 percent, by some estimates, of that plastic gets recycled. Instead, it ends up polluting far and wide, from the natural environment to our bodies (some evidence even suggests it can permeate the blood–brain barrier).
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Investigating the Bias Toward Recycling Over Reduction and Reuse

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By Patrick Hancock, michaela barnett, Dan Heath Verified
| Behavioral Scientist Verified
Recycling captures less than a quarter of waste in the United States. Take plastics, a particularly pernicious waste material: every year, some 400 million metric tons of plastic are produced worldwide, more than the weight of all 8 billion humans combined. Less than 10 percent, by some estimates, of that plastic gets recycled. Instead, it ends up polluting far and wide, from the natural environment to our bodies (some evidence even suggests it can permeate the blood–brain barrier).
Open in Who Shared Issue with article?

Decades of Public Messages About Recycling in the US Have Crowded Out More Sustainable Ways to Manage Waste

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By michaela barnett, Leidy Klotz, Patrick Hancock, Shahzeen Z. Attari
| The Food Revolution Network (FRN)
By Michaela Barnett, Leidy Klotz, Patrick I. Hancock, and Shahzeen Attari • Originally published by The Conversation You’ve just finished a cup of coffee at your favorite cafe. Now you’re facing a trash bin, a recycling bin, and a compost bin. What’s the most planet-friendly thing to do with your cup? Many of us would opt for the recycling bin — but that’s often the wrong choice.
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