Effective communication programmes and their role in improving public participation in recycling - lessons from London

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London used a road show approach to encourage residents to recycle more. This campaign helped to establish what people's attitudes were and the reasons for not recycling. This informed them what they needed to do to increase recycling participation.  Therefore they looked at understanding that recycles, how they recycle and why (motivations).

Motivators

• Information
• Face to face contact
• Events 

Experiences: What does/doesn't work?
Lack of recycling was found to be due to:

• Laziness
• Lack of convenience
• Inadequate local facilities
• Inadequate information.

It was also found that mail shot information was classed as junk mail and not read hence the concept of a road show approach.

• After the road show 8 out of the 11 areas where the road show had been increased their recycling rates while two areas showed no change. The recycling show was in the form of recycling staff dressed in recycling shirts armed with leaflets, stickers and badges knocking on every door on the area talking to residents who were at home during 10 am and 5pm. This road show expanded to week evenings and weekends.
• An additional paper gave results stating that once a lack of knowledge had been turned around there was a 19% increase in recycled material and a new program is being developed with new environmental messages at different times of the day to reach a wider audience in London.

Specific paper/book
'Effective communication programmes and their role in improving public participation in recycling - lessons from London.'

Contact details
Adam D Read
Kingston University School of Earth Sciences and Geography Sustainable Waste Management