Why incentivise recycling?
There has been substantial progress in reducing waste to landfill and over 91% of households are now involved with recycling. However, the UK recycling rate for household waste is about 35%.
The European Waste Framework Directive requires 50%, so we have work to do. Encouraging more people to start remains an issue, but even current recyclers must be encouraged to do more.
In 2009, the Climate Change Act gave Local Authorities the right to implement charging schemes for household waste. Since then there has been a rapid increase in electronically chipped, waste weighing bins. Veolia Environmental Services has entered into an agreement with RecycleBank® which has a successful track record in the US and is now able to offer incentive schemes to municipal waste customers
in the United Kingdom.
The Issues
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Following a 2007 government consultation on ‘incentives’ to minimise household waste and increase recycling, this initiative was seen as punishing people for bad behaviour, rather than rewarding them for good. This resulted in negative perceptions and charging schemes were seen as an extra tax. Terms such as
‘spy in the bin’ were applied to the electronic chips and ‘pay as you throw’ to the schemes themselves. Stories emerged of penalty notices, large fines, threats of court action and an overall impression that ‘Big Brother’ would be watching the householder. This created public mistrust and there has been little enthusiasm to implement such schemes.
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This reaction is perhaps understandable. Behaviour change can be encouraged in two basic ways, either positive or negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement provides incentives to reward change, whereas negative reinforcement punishes unwanted behaviour. The schemes proposed by Government in 2007 were perceived as the latter.
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Evidence shows that people are much more likely to recycle if they can see a benefit. As many retailers have shown, reward schemes are popular and widely used by consumers, so it is not surprising that schemes using these principles are proving successful.
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RecycleBank® is a popular loyalty and rewards scheme in the USA. It rewards residents for recycling with vouchers for money off local and national goods and services, allowing Local Authorities to reap the benefits of increased recycling, lower waste disposal costs and supporting residents and
the local economy. Trial schemes in two UK boroughs have achieved extremely positive results, leading to full roll-out in both cases.
Our Position
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Veolia Environmental Services believes that positive reinforcement is the way to encourage recycling.
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We favour incentive schemes, but recognise that they work best when participants value the rewards on offer, the performance required is realistically achievable, the reward is worthy of the behaviour change and the scheme is easily understood.
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We will work with local authorities and schemes such as RecycleBank® to ensure that household recycling is maximised.
To read our full position statement on recycling incentive schemes click on the below link.