British Scientist Who Helps Sort Out Trash

At the North Village canteen at Fudan University in Shanghai, you might spot a British professor tucking into her favorite dish: Fudan's famous braised pork. That's Marie Harder, who has spent 15 years in Shanghai studying "garbage."

Last year, she received China's highest honor for foreign experts, the Chinese Government Friendship Award.

Long before Shanghai's waste sorting regulations made headlines, Harder and her students were already embedded in the city's residential communities, tracking how people shifted from reluctance to routine.

Decade of grassroots research

Fudan University's Sustainable Behavior Research Group, one of the earliest university research teams in China to focus on waste sorting, conducted a decade-long study on how urban residents develop the willingness to sort waste, begin doing it, and sustain the habit.

"At first, even the students didn't know much. In fact, we were building a theory. These theories needed to start with small experiments, moving from residential compounds to subdistricts, and then expanding to the entire city of Shanghai. Ultimately, we identified the most important behavioral factors for waste sorting in Shanghai," Harder explained.

Before Shanghai entered its "mandatory waste sorting era," Harder and her team submitted a report to the municipal government, highlighting three key findings: the adequacy and rationality of facilities and equipment, residents' understanding of their role in waste sorting, and a friendly volunteer-based duty system for interpersonal guidance at waste stations.

In February 2019, Shanghai's Municipal Regulations on Domestic Waste Management were released. Harder told reporters the effects were quickly evident after the regulations took effect. The regulations promote waste sorting through legal enforcement, clarifying the responsibilities of all parties, mandating source reduction, and ensuring full-chain supervision of the sorting system. According to assessments and research conducted two years later, Shanghai's waste sorting efforts have proven successful.

In 2011, Harder moved her family from the UK to Shanghai, where she and her students delved into Shanghai's grassroots communities. They visited 25,000 residential compounds across Shanghai for field research. Donning masks and gloves, they inspected waste sorting stations and communicated face-to-face with community residents, studying how people move from willingness to action, and finally to habit. These fieldwork findings were compiled into policy advisory reports on domestic waste management, which contributed to the 2019 Municipal Regulations on Domestic Waste Management.

One of Harder's students, Li Changjun, now an associate professor at Nanjing Agricultural University, continues to research waste sorting management. "Working with Professor Harder on the ground gave me great inspiration and solidified my decision to continue this research, which is of great significance to the sustainable development of humanity," Li said.

"I have realized my original aspiration to contribute to the development of all humanity. Conducting research on sustainable development in Shanghai has made me resonate deeply with the spirit of this city," Harder said emotionally in 2021, when she received the Magnolia Gold Award, Shanghai's highest honor for expatriates.

Pioneering the 'WeValue' methodology

Harder's research on the "behavioral factors for waste sorting in Shanghai" is part of her broader commitment to studying "sustainable behavior" since 2010. She realized that changing people's behaviors to make them sustainable and facilitating knowledge exchange among different communities are crucial for enhancing public participation in community development and advancing sustainable development.

Harder thinks many phenomena remain unexplained by existing scientific theories; relying solely on known scientific knowledge to guide human development is too limiting. The "sustainable behaviors" of different groups and the underlying values and preferences embody important local wisdom.

"Many communities do not realize that the practices they have passed down for centuries on their land, though not yet explainable by current science, are beneficial to the sustainable development of all humanity," Harder said. A significant part of her team's work involves articulating this wisdom, which has often been overlooked or is difficult to express due to lack of trust or cognitive differences.

"We have spent over a decade developing and refining a methodology called WeValue," Harder said. This methodology systematically extracts "shared values" from people's sustainable behaviors, identifying external factors that influence human health, development, or behavioral change, thereby increasing public engagement with and acceptance of policies.

Throughout their fieldwork, Harder's team respects local values, acting as listeners and translators. This approach aligns closely with the Global Civilization Initiative, which holds that "all peoples have the right to pursue and explore the realization of common values for humanity."

From a philosophical and ethical perspective, Harder's work focuses on empathy and shared understanding among different subjects — a concept that resonates with the principle of "people-to-people connectivity" in the high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative.

This article was edited and translated based on the Chinese version written by Fudan University.

Source: Science and Technology Daily