SAMANTHA MCAVOY
Ohio University, MS Environmental Studies
EREF Scholar 2025
Talk Isn’t Trash: Aligning Messaging with Cultural Values to Improve Waste Behavior at Ohio University Move-Out
My research examines how cultural attitudes toward waste and recycling influence individual behaviors. I will be specifically looking at a common but often overlooked issue: why people who care about sustainability don’t always act sustainably. This gap between what people value and how they behave, or the “value-action gap”, shows up in many areas of daily life, especially around consumption and waste. Understanding and addressing this gap is critical because individual actions, when multiplied across communities, have a major impact on environmental outcomes.
My study focuses on Ohio University students during spring move-out, a time when tons of reusable items and recyclables end up in the trash. I will be evaluating how the cultural values of individualism and collectivism impact behavior, and my goal is to see if messages aligning with these values can boost participation in sustainable move-out programs. I am conducting a campus-wide survey to identify which values students relate to most. Based on the results, I will create messaging that speaks directly to those values. For example, students with more collectivist values might be more influenced by messages about helping the community, while those with individualist values might respond better to messages about personal benefits. I will then track whether these targeted messages lead to higher participation in waste diversion efforts during move-out.
This work matters not just for improving sustainability efforts on campus, but for anyone trying to turn good intentions into real action. By understanding how cultural values shape waste disposal practices, this study will provide recommendations for developing programs that encourage more sustainable behavior across various demographics.
Biography
Samantha McAvoy earned her BA in Environmental Biology from Ohio University (OHIO) in 2024, and is continuing at OHIO to obtain her master’s degree in Environmental Studies. As an undergraduate, she served as Sustainability Chair for the Habitat for Humanity Student Chapter, where she led meetings on sustainable construction, and led salvages during campus demolitions to save usable materials from being sent to the landfill. This position also allowed her to work on a team that was committed to building a sustainable “Earthship” structure on OHIO’s campus, made completely of recycled materials.
Currently, Samantha is a Graduate Assistant with the Appalachia Ohio Zero Waste Initiative. In this role, she collaborates with campus and community partners to plan, organize, and implement a variety of sustainability initiatives across campus. Some of her current initiatives include the on-campus thrift shop which brings local thrifts to campus to reduce the barrier of transportation that students face when shopping second-hand, as well as an off-campus move-out event where donation stations are strategically placed around off-campus housing hotspots to maximize material diversion rates.
