The ‘dirt diary’ is a do-book that was used to interact with residents to gain a clear view on the true waste journey in households. The do-book is contains several assignments for residents around different types of waste, for example plastics, organic waste, paper and textile. Assignments include drawing a map of waste solutions in the kitchen, photographing waste generated when preparing a meal and describing how they dispose of the waste in the kitchen and at communal containers. The do-books completed by the residents were analysed by the researchers for each waste type, studying behaviour exhibited and underlying motives for that behaviour. The do-books proved to be a valuable tool to gain understanding of people's behaviour around disposing waste, the opportunities for waste separation they have in and around their homes and their motivations for separating waste or not. This should lead to touch points to create interventions on automatic behaviour so that a sustainable change in this behaviour can take place.
This do-book was exhibited as boundary object at the Collaboration for Impact exhibition, eccompanying the publication Collaboartion for Impact,