Richard Jackson, UCL

1. WHERE NOW FOR UK WASTE
POLICY?
#UKADBiogas @adbioresources
PANEL:
NEIL GRUNDON, GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT
RICHARD JACKSON, UCL
MARK LINEHAN, SUSTAINABLE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION
DR DAVID GREENFIELD, SOENECS

3. By 2025
• 1.1 billion more people
• 1.8 bn middle class consumers
• 57% increase in food spending
• 47% increase in packaging
• 41% increase in end of life materials

4. • Designing out waste
• Smarter procurement
• Opportunities for reuse
• Upcycling
• Recycling
Important factor: People’s behaviours

5. UCL Issues
• Lack of space
• Cost of changing the system
• 230 buildings and increasing
• Not a clear set of standards
• Waste legislation

6. • Effective interventions are needed to ensure
optimal recycling at UCL
• To design these, we first need to understand
recycling-related behaviours
• Environmental Sustainability Team and the
Centre for Behaviour Change won a Grand
Challenges Sustainable Cities and Human
Wellbeing small grant to improve recycling at
UCL

7. • Recycling intervention implemented by UCL
Estates Division in Drayton House in June 2013
Launch day with staffed
information desk
New system of signage and bin
positions

8. 1. What effect does the intervention have on:
• Contamination of recyclable waste (i.e. general waste
put into recyclable waste bin);
• Lost opportunities for recycling in general waste (i.e.
recyclable waste put into general waste bin);
• The weight of recyclable and general waste?
2. What are reasons for sub-optimal recycling?
3. Can we improve this intervention to further increase
recycling by reducing contamination and lost
opportunities?

9. Intervention site
% (n)
Total
% (n)
Control site
% (n)
Total
% (n)
Contaminated
bags
Non-
contaminated
bags
Contaminated
bags
Non-
contaminated
bags
Pre-intervention 81% (52) 19% (12) 100% (64) 84% (52) 16% (10) 100% (62)
Post-intervention 39% (63) 61% (100) 100% (163) 53% (85) 47% (75) 100% (160)
-42%
-31%
Intervention site
% (n)
Total
% (n)
Control site
% (n)
Total
% (n)
Lost
opportunity
No lost
opportunity
Lost
opportunity
No lost
opportunity
Pre-intervention 62% (18) 38% (11) 100% (29) 65% (24) 35% (13) 100% (37)
Post-intervention 51% (54) 49% (52) 100% (106) 53% (56) 47% (49) 100% (105)
• Significant reduction in contaminated recycling over time but not between the sites
• No significant reduction in lost opportunities over time or between sites.
-11%
-12%

10. • Interviews with 20 building users
• The intervention didn’t appear to prompt building users to use bins as
intended more than the existing system in the control site – why?

11. Questions structured according to COM-B: A simple model
to understand behaviour…
Michie et al, 2011 Implementation Science

12. • Knowing which items can be recycled and where
“I’ve got something to get rid of and I
simply don’t know where it goes … You
put it in one of the receptacles, not
knowing if it’s the right one..”
“Okay, we have these three
bins, one blue, one brown, one
green. But I don’t really know
what goes in each.”
“…What do I do with my empty coffee cup, paper
coffee cup? Is that food? … Food contaminated
container, or is it just a container?”

13. • Availability and proximity of resources for recycling
“I didn’t know where it was, or it was
going to be, you know, actually far
out of my way to do it.”
“Because there wasn’t a
recycling bin around that took
what I had.”

14. • Concerns about contamination
“I didn’t want to put it in the
wrong recycling bin to
contaminate that recycling bin.”
“I’ll hold onto the general waste
because I think it’s just making things
difficult for people, if you [PUT IT IN
THE RECYCLING BIN]; it defeats the
purpose of having a recycle bin.”

15. • “I’ll recycle if it’s easy”
“I will if I can, if it's convenient. I
think… I wouldn't spend like
another ten more minutes trying
to find an extra bin to recycle...”
“Yes… but if you’ve got one bin
in front of you, another bin
further away, then probably,
likely, to go in there.”

16. • Review our recycling approach – 2 bins; 3 bins
• What communications is provided and how?
• What feedback?
• Incentives

17. Thanks for listening!

18. WHERE NOW FOR UK WASTE
POLICY?
#UKADBiogas @adbioresources
PANEL:
NEIL GRUNDON, GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT
RICHARD JACKSON, UCL
MARK LINEHAN, SUSTAINABLE RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION
DR DAVID GREENFIELD, SOENECS