what makes us change behavior when knowledge don`t?

It´s the sosial anthropology weeks of the diploma, and I find it difficult to narrow the subject and pinpoint a good and accurate issue for my essay.
What makes us change our rutines and behavior in everyday life when knowledge don´t?
We know it is smart to recycle our waste, but still quite many I know only have one dustbin under their kitchen sink. (When one could have one each for plastic, organic, paper, batteries, metal/glass, etc).
We know everybody driving to work alone in each car is very bad for air quality, we can even see the direct impact it has to our environment here in Bergen in wintertime, and still we do it.

P. Bourdieu describes people as results of their environment when they grew up, this environment decides how we look at our surroundings as adults. "What you learn without language (action) is hard to unlearn with language (theory)".

So, maybe a mix of good rolemodels and regulations is needed to change our habits and lower our lifes carbon footprint? How long is that going to take then? Or maybe we need to see a more accurate and direct result of our lifestyle in our closest environment, f ex having the wasteplant just around the corner from where we live? The Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa puts it like this;

”Let´s take the example of mixing factories and housing which would normally be prohibited by functional town-planning theories. Ordinarily a factory should be located far away from housing, but I think that only by living with the factory can we control its pollution. If we needed a big atomic power station we should build one right in the center of Tokyo. There you can see it and feel its output and only then does it really come into people’s consciousness. Under these conditions we might be able to control what’s going on around us and take action concerning such things as power stations. This is the basic idea of symbiosis – the very antithesis of Functionalism.”

What Kurokawa is implying, relates to the theory of virtue ethics; we act according to how the world is presented to us.
(Mathias Kemton on Architecture as a philosophical contribution to sustainability)

As an architect and a planner I am thinking my contribution can be to design accessible environments for people to make it easier for people to live easier lifes. Good space to move in when going to school, work, gym, band practice, sunbathing, shopping, clubbing etc. Short way to the light rail, good bikelanes, accessible pedestrian paths etc. Making it more timeconsuming to use the car rather than going by bike, public transportation or walk.
Mixed neighbourhoods with workspace, shops, schools, kindergardens, parks and a large variety in appartment size and standard can be strategic solutions to attract people to live their everyday life locally, and to live there for a longer time, wich again can strenghten the neighbourhoods in a positive way. Maybe.

But first of all we need to get this essay ready. Focus.