Recycling and the Dampening of Concern: Comparing the Roles of Large and Small Actors in Shaping the Environmental Discourse

This paper is motivated by the discrepancy between poll results revealing high levels of environmental concern and the minimalist actions adopted by most people. Specifically, it asks why the recycling bandwagon did not generalize to other behaviors and addresses these questions by investigating the interpretive packages used by would-be agenda-setters to frame individual lifestyle changes. Sources that were perused include newspapers, prime-time television shows, books on environmental behavior, and pamphlets pertaining to the environment. The results reveal a stunted discourse that fatally undermines the environmental project. The analytic task of the paper is to explain the content and structure of this discourse by reference to the interests and actions of both large and small actors. Consistent with the concept of distorted consumption, much of this discourse can be attributed to the mobilization of bias by large actors. Nevertheless, the results for the small steps package are more readily ascribed to "consumer authority" and indicate that the relative power of each type of actor may have shifted over time.