With so many local authorities introducing new services, making changes, or looking to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of existing services, it is a good time to reacquaint yourself with your authority’s data.
Set out and Participation monitoring are important measures and are particularly useful:
- when planning a new service;
- where there are poorly performing rounds;
- when evaluating service effectiveness and efficiency;
- when there has been a service change; or
- when there has been a communications campaign.
Both are presented as a percentage and can be of a particular round, or if a representative sample has been taken across demographics, your local authority area.
Set out
The ‘set out rate’ is the percentage of properties presenting a container on any given collection opportunity. It can be measured by crews using in-cab technology and consistently logging either containers presented, or containers not presented, or by a person walking in front of the collection vehicle with a click counter. A set out rate would be used to help plan resources required when planning a new service, or in route optimisation.
WRAP
Participation
The ‘participation rate’ is the percentage of properties taking part in a collection service at least once over three consecutive collection cycles. Participation takes into account those properties that do engage with your collection services, but perhaps not every collection due to holidays or only presenting small quantities of recycling or waste.
To carry out participation monitoring, you will need to keep a record of addresses presenting their container each collection over the three cycles, to be able to then calculate their participation in the service. This requires resources and planning and due to this, participation monitoring is carried out less frequently. However, it is particularly important to carry out participation monitoring as part of any service change or new service planning, to ensure that you have factored in the correct resources that will be required.
Participation can be used with tonnage data to calculate the average kg per household produced by participating households. This can then be used as a planning tool to determine possible tonnages if the number of participating households increases, for example if there is a new communications campaign.
WRAP
Reality check
While it is usually recommended that you do not carry out set out or participation monitoring at certain times, for example at the start of a new service, during a religious holiday or during the school summer holidays, monitoring set out can be used as a reality check at the start of a new service. Tonnages can be an unreliable indication of participation at this time, as households might have had their containers for a few weeks prior to the first collection. High tonnages might look like high set out and participation, when in fact, participation is low, but there is a higher kg per household presented than would be usual.
Further information
WRAP can support you to better understand your collections data and how you can use it to improve participation in your services – contact us at la.support@wrap.ngo.
WRAP has published Monitoring and Evaluation Guidance (Monitoring and evaluation guidance | WRAP - The Waste and Resources Action Programme), which goes into detail about how to plan and carry out monitoring and evaluation, including set out and participation rates.
