Institutional Variation in the Evolution of Social Movements: the Spread of Recycling Advocacy Groups

Drawing on ideas from the literatures on organizations and social movements, I study how a shift in logics created changes in the causal drivers of state-level recycling advocacy group creation in the U.S. Specifically, I show that the formation of early state recycling advocacy groups was enabled by state-level conditions that were favorable to ecological activism. These early organizations were loosely connected and promoted a holistic logic of recycling that emphasized a vision of recycling as a mechanism to restructure Capitalistic production and consumption processes and enable communitybuilding and development. As the recycling movement unfolded, it took on a more hierarchical, national character, structured by a new national social movement organization, the National Recycling Coalition. This national organization promoted a more technocratic logic of recycling that valorized the creation of a mass-market in recycling commodities as a way to promote the development of a profitable recycling industry. As a result, the widespread diffusion of recycling advocacy groups was enabled, but mainly in states with high levels of state incinerator capacity. Recycling advocacy groups that emerged under the technocratic logic focused more on implementing recycling programs and engaging in jurisdictional battles with waste-to-energy incineration proponents over the solid waste stream. Implications for organization theory and the study of social movements and institutional change are discussed.