Zero Waste Movement: Opportunities and limitations for the Implementation of Environmental Practices as Exemplified by Russian Households

This master's paper is devoted to the study of environmental practices in the framework of the new concept of consumption as Zero Waste, namely the analysis of the possibilities and limitations for introducing Zero Waste into the life of young households. The object of this study is the phenomenon of environmental practices, and the subject is a set of certain environmental practices aimed at minimizing waste in everyday life - Zero Waste. Zero-waste is based on the 4R principle: rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle. This approach has been actively implemented over the past few years in the framework of state policies in a number of countries and find a great response among the environmental community. The relevance and significance of this study is explained by the deterioration of the environment and the increasing anxiety around this problem, as well as the importance of everyday practices of individual households in consumer behavior. The revision of the cult of consumption and the growth of social responsibility leads to the fact that individuals at the household level accept attempts to introduce environmental practices in everyday life to solve global environmental problems. This process is provoked from outside and is accompanied by many barriers. The purpose of this work was to identify and analyze the possibilities and limitations of introducing environmental practices into the everyday life of Russians, as well as identifying the characteristics of consumption and its transformation by replacing ordinary items with zero waste products. Achieving this goal was realized through 30 in-depth interviews with representatives of young households, collecting photographs characterizing the typical attributes of zero waste and deep analysis of the data by constructing a mental map of the follower of zero waste and highlighting the categories of opportunities and limitations for introducing environmental practices into everyday life.