WRAP’s Recycling Tracker, the largest and longest running survey of its kind, explores and tracks UK citizen attitudes towards recycling, as well as their recycling related behaviours. It provides the sector with a user (citizens) perspective. Insights provide the sector with an understanding of the barriers that citizens face and motivations that drive them to participate or not in the waste and recycling system.
The findings from WRAPs 2023 Recycling Tracker provide a basis for future design and roll out of new systems and services by providing a ‘user’ perspective on both dry and food waste recycling as well as a deposit return scheme.
Important findings have been pulled out for both Wales and Northern Ireland. These findings can be used to improve existing services, increase citizen participation and drive-up capture.
In England, as I am sure you are all aware, ambitious targets set out in the Resource and Waste Strategy for England aimed at achieving greater consistency in collections and driving up recycling – something that WRAP has been working on for several years. They include proposals for all local authorities to collect a consistent range of materials, the provision of food waste collections and a deposit return scheme. These will play a key role in increasing recycling rates and improving material quality. The big question is how do we make sure they ‘land’ with citizens?
Looking through the lens of the people who will need to engage with the waste and recycling services, WRAPs Recycling Tracker has highlighted a number of key findings from which we can draw some broad conclusions. These insights help to identify how the resources and waste sector can support citizens in engaging with the new or existing systems to deliver high levels of participation – and thus greater resource efficiency.
Food
While nearly all households in Wales and Northern Ireland have household food waste collections all Local Authorities in England will be obligated to collect household food waste through the provision of kerbside food waste collections.
The Tracker reveals that almost one fifth of UK citizens are classified as non-users (they have a service but don’t engage) and a further two in five said they do not have a service available to them. In Northern Ireland, participation is significantly higher at almost four in five although half of these households do not use their food waste collection to its full potential. Whilst in Wales, almost one in five have a service but do not use it and of those using the service two in five do not use it to its full potential. Waste compositional analysis conducted by WRAP Cymru found that of almost a quarter of residual waste is food.
If the reforms in England are to have the greatest possible impact and if we are to drive up capture of food waste where collection is already provided, we need to understand why citizens do not participate at all or do not recycle all of their food waste. The Tracker uncovers a few key barriers when it comes to food waste recycling. These barriers are primarily hygiene related issues (i.e. smells, leaks and spills, flies / maggots) and they are reported by both users and non-users, although the non-users are much more likely to cite them.
WRAP’s unpublished qualitative research (2022) uncovered that these hygiene related barriers were symptoms of poor or inconsistent food waste management practices. There is a key opportunity to further support those citizens develop household routines that help avoid unpleasantness. This is true for both new service roll out and in increasing capture from existing services.
It is important to provide citizens with tips and ‘hacks’ on how to manage and avoid unpleasantness. This will help to increase participation and drive up food waste capture. Respondents that use the service have suggested strategies for ‘hassle free’ food waste recycling. For more information visit the report on our website.
Consistency Or Simpler Recycling
Turning to the planned wider recycling reforms, Local Authorities will need to provide dry recycling services that cover a broad range of packaging materials, something that Wales have in place through the Welsh Blue Print and in Northern Ireland their recycling policy options have been drawn up.
The latest research reveals a pattern of incremental but positive improvements in behaviour but despite the improvements that have been recorded in 2022-2023, there is still room for improvement. Contamination remains at high levels with four in five UK citizens trying to recycle items that are not accepted by their Local Authorities and over half of UK citizens currently do not recycle one or more items that could have been.
The collection reforms in England, will play a key role in increasing recycling rates and improving material quality. However, work is needed across the UK to ensure that - when residents check which items can and can’t be recycled - this checking process is more successful. This has key implications for both local and national government communications as well as retailers and brands through the way they label products with recycling-based information. Something that will be provided for by the mandatory recycling labelling requirements under Extended Producer Responsibility. Brands, retailers and manufacturers can go further by providing front of pack motivational messaging, something that WRAP would consider best practice.
DRS
Moving on to deposit return scheme for drinks packaging. By introducing a deposit return scheme (DRS), UK governments aim to increase the drinks packaging recycling rates by charging consumers a deposit on drinks containers such as bottles and cans.
With this in mind, the Tracker asked a few questions around citizens’ current knowledge and awareness of the proposed DRS schemes. Reflecting the current uncertainty, citizens knowledge is low. Just one in three UK citizens said they have heard something about the introduction of DRS. The survey also reveals great uncertainty in what drinks packaging will be covered in the scheme.
More support is needed to increase public awareness, understanding and engagement with DRS. Successful implementation will, in large part, be dependent on citizens understanding and engaging effectively with the system. Therefore, the scheme should be designed with citizens at the heart. Once details of the scheme are developed, there is a clear need for a significant level of public engagement to communicate that the scheme will be coming into effect, what is included, and how and why citizens can / should participate. Citizens will need to be trained and prepared to easily transition into a very different way of recycling.
Final reflections
Key to the success of the UK Collection and Packaging Reforms will be the readiness of citizens to play their part at home, at work, and other parts of their lives. We will all need to change where and how we dispose of items used in our everyday lives. While the focus to date has been on engaging and preparing industry and Local Authorities for the reforms, now is the time to focus on preparing citizens for this monumental societal change. A holistic approach to citizen readiness for UK collection and recycling reforms is essential, including a compelling mix of interventions to make it easy for citizens to engage with the new or existing system, as well as making them feel that they should.
