A problem unstuck? Evaluating the effectiveness of sticker prompts for encouraging household food waste recycling behaviour.

Shearer, L, Gatersleben, BCM, Morse, S, Smyth, M and Hunt, M (2016) A problem unstuck? Evaluating the effectiveness of sticker prompts for encouraging household food waste recycling behaviour. Waste Management.

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Abstract

This Randomised Control Trial (RCT) investigated the effectiveness of using stickers as a visual prompt to encourage the separate collection of household food waste for recycling in two local authorities in South East England. During a baseline period of up to 15 weeks, separately collected food waste was weighed (in tonnes) and averaged across households in both treatment (N = 33,716 households within 29 defined areas) and control groups (N = 30,568 households within 26 areas). A sticker prompt was then affixed to the lids of refuse bins in the treatment group area only. Weights for both groups were subsequently measured across a 16-week experimental period. Results showed that, in the control group, there was no change in the average weight of food waste captured for recycling between the baseline and experimental period. However, there was a significant increase (20.74%) in the treatment group, and this change in behaviour persisted in the longer term. Sticker prompts therefore appear to have a significant and sustained impact on food waste recycling rates, while being simple, practically feasible and inexpensive (£0.35 per household) for local authorities to implement at scale.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects :	Environment
Divisions :	Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences > Centre for Environmental Strategy
Authors :	Name Email ORCID Shearer, L Gatersleben, BCM Morse, S Smyth, M Hunt, M
Date :	30 September 2016
DOI :	10.1016/j.wasman.2016.09.036
Copyright Disclaimer :	© 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Uncontrolled Keywords :	Waste management, recycling, food waste, behaviour change, prompting
Depositing User :	Symplectic Elements
Date Deposited :	25 Oct 2016 08:46
Last Modified :	25 Oct 2016 08:46
URI:	http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/id/eprint/812309

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