Bhavna Middha

I am a sustainable consumption scholar and a social practice theorist. My research spans the sociology and geographies of consumption through topics such as food, plastics and packaging, energy, and waste. My work has explored and advanced the practice perspective in sustainable consumption by focusing on justice, equity and health aspects of sustainability transitions. A strong focus of my work has been on qualitative research methods, where digital ethnography has been an important aspect of my empirical work.

 

I am an Australian Research Council (ARC) funded Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient for 2024 and a Senior Research Fellow. Bhavna is based at the world-leading Centre for Urban Research in the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, where I am the Deputy Associate Director of the Regenerative Environments and Climate Action Theme.

 

I am a recipient of the 2024 RMIT Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research Engagement and Impact (ECR) and the 2024 DSC Award for Research Excellence (ECR). I have also received the 2025 Europe Visiting Fellowship, under which I spent a 10-week secondment at RMIT Europe to advance international collaboration for RMIT.

I co-lead the 'Social Practices and Sustainable Consumption' Enabling Impact Network at RMIT.

 
I also co-lead RMIT's interdisciplinary 'Food Cultures and Practices' Enabling Impact Network.

My DECRA research titled “Tackling food-related single-use plastics in diverse consumption contexts” aims to investigate the uneven impacts of interventions that target consumers’ engagement with single-use food plastics by utilising critical social science approaches. This research aims to create new knowledge through an evidence base in sustainable consumption and waste studies using innovative qualitative techniques. Expected outcomes of this project include conceptual and methodological approaches that enhance societal capabilities for practicable waste management. This will provide significant benefits by improving Australia’s capacity to develop and integrate lived experiences of single-use food plastics into the current and future National Waste Policy and National Plastics Plan"

 

I am a CI on the $12 million ARC Industrial Transformation and Research Hub - Transformation of Reclaimed Waste Resources to Engineered Materials and Solutions for a Circular Economy (TREMS) (2021-2026). As part of the hub, I research the social and policy dimensions of waste production and consumption.

My other ongoing research projects include

CI: ARC Linkage project: TRASH: transforming refuse in apartments for sustainable housing

CI: ARC Discovery Project: Empowering households in resource-efficient sustainability transitions 

Lead CI: Examining the Container Deposit Scheme in Victoria as an equitable and sustainable waste management strategy

Lead CI: Consumer fridge studies and meat waste project funded by End Food Waste Australia (previously Fight Food Waste CRC) and Meat and Livestock Australia