London Borough of Tower Hamlets: Recycling Rates

Challenge

Tower Hamlets has one of the lowest rates of recycling in the country – ?. Specific challenges include a transient population, 70% from ethnic minority groups and high levels of maisonettes and flats (88%) which have less space for recycling.

Solution

We carried out two focus groups and a survey to understand the barriers to recycling. They included lack of understanding of what can and can’t be recycled, a lack of trust in the process, overflowing communal bins and access to the right recycling bags. We launched Let’s rethink to improve people’s knowledge of recycling including a cut out and keep guide and created videos to build trust in the recycling process. In tandem, Tower Hamlets increased bin collections and improved access to recycling bags. We sent out social norming residents to thank residents who were recycling well.

Impact

• The campaign delivered 6.5m impressions over 6 months
• 150,000 interacted with the campaign online and 40,000 visited refreshed web pages
• Satisfaction with recycling services rose by 9% to 62%

 

 

 

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