This single sheet (you may need to zoom in) tells the story of a project that led to a trial that showed an increase in the proportion of households sorting food waste for collection, by targeting communications only at the (approximately) 50% of households not currently doing so, despite the service having been available for eight years. The project was a collaboration between With The Grain and The Hunting Dynasty, commissioned by Bristol Waste.

1. Les, Paul, Rico
Lockleaze
16!
OUR EXECUTION
WE FED THE INSIGHTS INTO A CO-PRODUCTION TECHNIQUE DRAWING ON BEHAVIOURAL
PSYCHOLOGY (THE WITH THE GRAIN DESIGN TOOL), TO DESIGN AN APPROACH TO
INFLUENCE THE ‘HIGH-HANGING FRUIT’.
In this way, we tailored both the approach and content of our trial intervention.
We used a targeted leaflet-drop because it is low-cost to execute and can be delivered inexpensively (to
the 190k homes in Bristol, and beyond).
The two-sided leaflet used is shown on the left, annotated with descriptions of executional factors linked,
where appropriate, to the ‘aha!’ insights.
THE RESULTS
We tested the leaflet on households across two locations who were observed on bin collection day not
managing their food waste but having put out their dry recycling. These homes were selected for leaflet
intervention on that same bin collection day (hence, ‘Thank you for recycling’). On subsequent collection
weeks we revisited and observed their food waste behaviour.
This single, one-time-only leaflet, delivered to the ‘high hanging fruit’ who don't recycle food waste,
INCREASED THE LEVEL OF FOOD WASTE RECYCLING ACROSS THE EXPERIMENTAL
POPULATION (N=61) BY AT LEAST 16% – WITH A TOTAL OF 28% HOUSEHOLDS LEAVING FOOD
WASTE OUT AT LEAST ONCE.
The project also tested other treatments and approaches. Each was similarly successful; we are profiling
this treatment as it is the most scalable and straightforward, offering the best RoI. In practice, at population
level, our results point to a participation jump from 50% of households to the 58-64% range – a huge shift
considering a 1-2% change would be considered valuable in the waste collection industry.
THE CHALLENGE
GET MORE BRISTOL HOUSEHOLDS SORTING THEIR FOOD WASTE FOR COLLECTION.
Recycling rates had started to fall after years holding steady, and half of households were not sorting food
waste for collection, though this service had been in place since 2008.
OUR TASK WAS TO INFLUENCE THIS, SO WE NEEDED INSIGHT ON WHAT PEOPLE DO IN THEIR
OWN HOMES.
What did we know about how/whether people recycle in their home? We were puzzled that a recent
survey of a representative sample of households had revealed recycling rates twice the City average …
until we realised that these households had received a leaflet in advance, telling them their ‘leavings’ were
going to be surveyed.
a. Aha! –observer effect seems to drive households’ compliance
Other than that? A behavioural black hole. We know a lot about purchase decisions in supermarkets, and
we know a lot about what happens to waste and materials that have been sorted for recycling, once they
have been picked up from the kerbside. But we (as a community) know nothing about what happens
between a product going through the front door, and packaging – or food waste – coming back out.
AND OUR LITERATURE REVIEW DREW A BLANK. THIS WAS THE PROBLEM THAT OUR INSIGHT
STAGE HAD TO SOLVE.
OUR SOLUTION
We went into people’s homes for our insight stage: 6 households were visited as part of qualitative/
ethnographic research to get real observational insight from two household types: families who are good
at recycling, and those who do next to none. We turned up with empty shampoo bottles, empty cheese
packets, etc.
RESIDENTS WALKED US THROUGH HOW THEY DEAL WITH ALL TYPES OF WASTE IN THEIR
HOME.
We found extraordinary insight into behaviour/practice in ‘good’ households; significantly, waste and
recycling industry contractors and commissioners have never acknowledged these in policy or
communications
b. Aha! – Good recyclers have a ‘holding place’ in the home where they put cardboard, tins, etc before
periodically putting these in the recycling box by the door. The ‘holding space’ is usually a box or
shelf.
c. Aha! Food waste sorters do it bit-by-bit, hour-by-hour, day-by-day: taking out food waste as the
caddy fills
d. Aha! – There is a ‘lead person’ in-home who drives the whole house to conform (even where other
household members think it’s a team effort).
Findings that undermine the ‘rational’ model that recycling communications have always focused on:
e. Aha! – Non-recyclers know (pretty much) everything about what they *could* do, so it’s not an
information deficit problem
f. Aha! – Many people still have their full compliment of bins which were delivered to them for free, but
neglect to use the food waste bin – so it’s not an affordance/capability issue
g. Aha! – The emotional reward for food waste sorting, that helps make the behaviour ‘sticky’, is a
cleaner, fresher kitchen bin, not ‘saving the planet’ or saving the Council money. But people only
realise this after they’ve started.
h. Aha! – Households’ behaviours and mental models do not have ‘food’ at the end of the continuum of
household waste (i.e. there’s no evidence that people need to be asked to ‘do food’ only after they’re
good at dry recycling)
i. Aha! – Residents don’t say ‘food waste’ spontaneously; it’s jargon, though people in the industry
don’t realise this.
!
HUNTING DYNASTY-WITH THE GRAIN:
HOUSEHOLD FOOD WASTE
Also: Localisation – local
round name
Also: Reciprocation –
beginning with a ‘thank you’ in
recognition of their observed
dry recycling efforts
(cardboard, etc), and not
‘telling off’ anywhere for not
doing food waste sorting
(‘amnesty’)
Also: Reputation: Bristol
Waste show ‘skin in the
game’ by putting their name
to it (but not lots of
stakeholders – that
diminishes ‘skin in the
game’)
Also: Non-discriminatory
imagery: Using illustration
of the type of food that can
go in the bin, and one of the
actions involved (plate
scraping) rather than using
photographs, so every
recipient could project their
exact food, plate, and arm,
etc, increasing
personalisation (e.g. chicken
represents frozen chicken
nuggets, or a homemade
coq au vin, etc)
b. Aha! – Good recyclers have a ‘holding
place’ in home
Execution – so we describe it for the non-food
waste sorters to bring it to life, reducing the
burden of imagining the management of food
d. Aha! – There is a ‘lead
person’ in-home who drives
the whole house to conform
Execution – we connect
with them (‘you’, ‘yours’)
e. Aha! – Non-recyclers know (pretty much)
everything about what they *could* do, so
it’s not an information deficit problem
Execution – Don’t explain why you should
sort food waste – show only how
f. Aha! – Many people still have their full
compliment of bins which were delivered to them
for free, but neglect to use the food waste bin.
Execution – only minor reference to where you
can get more bins, if needed
g. Aha! – The emotional
reward for food waste
sorting, that helps make
the behaviour ‘sticky’, is a
cleaner, fresher kitchen bin
Execution – vivid, clear,
concrete words evoking
sensations to create a
salient ‘ask’ (‘cleaner,
fresher kitchen bin’/’slimy,
smelly’)
c. Aha! Food waste
sorters do it bit-by-bit,
hour-by-hour, day-by-day
Execution – so we focus
solely on the the target
behaviour with proximal,
vivid, memorable verbs
(‘Put’, ‘Fill’, ‘Tip’, ‘Enjoy’) to
create a behaviour-
mnemonic
Also: Easy-read imagery:
Pictographically visualising
kerbside and kitchen food
bins to alleviate cognitive
burden
a. Aha! –observer effect seems to
drive households’ compliance
Execution – personalisation and
implied observation: crew names,
house number, direct voice,
handwritten in pen
Execution – leaflet drop during noisy
collection to take advantage of visibly
increased neighbourhood activity (noise,
high-vis, etc)
“Findings show that we need to look at things differently if we want different results. Behaviour inside the
home is something overlooked, and if we understand, we can tailor communication and make a real
difference.”
Pam Jones, Commissioning lead at Bristol City Council
“Communications need a personal touch. The UK’s household recycling rate is stubbornly hovering below
50%. Warren Hatter and Oliver Payne believe that gentle persuasion could get it moving again.”
The industry magazine, Materials Recycling World, Jan 2017
FEATURES
Communications
Instant impact: ‘nudge campaign’
boosted food waste recycling
council and
there are oth
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Collection day week 3:
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waste left kerbside
Collection day, week 2:
observed food
waste left kerbside
Collection day, week 1:
leaflet posted, no food
waste left kerbside
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FOOD RECYCLING UPTAKE IN HOUSEHOLDS THAT WERE
HAND-POSTED A LEAFLET (N=61)
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and is cha
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For most of
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● Reciproca
The leaflets b
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of the observation weeks