FREE Guide to Improve Recycling and Food Waste Rates

Increase your recycling and food waste collection rates, and save money, with this practical, step-by-step tool based on proven behavioural science techniques.

The guide shows you how to tackle the challenges you face in your organisation, from contamination to missed collections along with better joined-up working.

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Seven things that actually change recycling behaviour

Most recycling and food waste campaigns focus on what to say.

These principles focus on how people actually make decisions and what that means for how you design and deliver your service and communications.

  1. Make it easy first. The single biggest driver of recycling behaviour isn’t motivation, it’s friction. Before anything else, ask what’s making the right behaviour harder than it needs to be.
  2. Don’t overload people. Most people can only hold around four to five pieces of information at once. Break your messaging into small, specific chunks: one material, one action, one moment at a time.
  3. Get closer to the behaviour. A message delivered at the exact point of decision, on a bin lid, a caddy, a sticker or an online advert will outperform a leaflet read weeks earlier. Proximity matters.
  4. Use what others are doing. People are strongly influenced by the behaviour of those around them. When everyone else around you is doing something, showing that publicly is one of the most powerful nudges available.
  5. Tell people their efforts matter. When residents don’t hear back from the council, their belief that recycling is worthwhile drops sharply. Regular communication directly affects participation rates.
  6. Seize moments of change. When a new service launches, people are unusually open to forming new habits. It’s the best, and often most overlooked, window for behaviour change. It’s also the case when people move into a new home.
  7. Poor knowledge is still a major barrier. According to national research, fewer than one in ten residents feel fully confident about what can and can’t be recycled. Clarity in your communications isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s essential.

Dominic Ridley_Moy signature

Dominic

Dominic Ridley-Moy FCIPR, Chart.PR, Dominic Ridley-Moy FCIPR, Chart.PR, Dip CIPR
Behaviour Change Network founder

Dominic presenting at a workshop

How, Where, Why, Who, What and When

Dominic explains what questions you can ask to make your communications so much more effective and tackle the challenges and problems you face today.