Sarah Cotterill, Peter John and Hanhua Liu

1
How to get those recycling boxes out a
randomised controlled trail of a door to door
recycling campaign

• Sarah Cotterill, Peter John and Hanhua Liu
• Institute for Political and Economic Governance
• http//www.ipeg.org.uk

2
Overview

• Context and background
• Research design
• Old Trafford and Gorse Hill
• Canvassing and Participation Monitoring
• Preliminary results
• Costs
• Next steps

3
Policy context

• Government target
• 50 of household waste to be recycled or
  composted by 2020 (31 2006/7)
• Key actions
• Incentives
• Reform of regulation
• Targeted action on producers
• Infrastructure investment
• Culture Change
• (Defra Waste Strategy for England 2007)

4
Background

• Citizen behaviour change essential for achieving
  better environmental outcomes
• Many environmental acts are low effort, but need
  reminders, habit or brief contacts to activate
• Kerbside recycling popular .. but not everyone
  does it

5
Recycling Service

• Quality of recycling service affects recycling
  rates
• Wide range of materials
• Appropriate containers
• Frequency and day of collection
• Visibly different vehicles
• Promotion of the scheme

6
Encouraging recycling

• A variety of means to encourage recycling
  incentives, campaigns and leaflets
• Face to face door knocking with a professional
  team can impact on behaviours like voting (John
  and Brannan)
• Canvassing has been found in other studies to
  raise recycling rates

7
Randomised Controlled Trials

• 2 (or more) groups
• One group is canvassed
• One is a control group
• Random allocation of households to one or other
  group
• Observations of both groups before and after the
  canvassing

8
The research site

• Old Trafford
• 53 white
• Relatively deprived (some parts in lowest 6 of
  English neighbourhoods)
• Mix of terraced and semi-detached housing
• Gorse Hill
• 85 white
• Less deprived (in the lowest 30 nationally)
• Mix of terraced and semi-detached housing

9
Old Trafford and Gorse Hill
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Sample and randomisation

• 6580 households in 194 streets
• Streets randomly assigned to
• Canvassed group (97 streets, 3468 houses)
• Control group (97 streets, 3112 houses)
• Stratified by district (Old Trafford/Gorse Hill)
  and street length
• (University of York Trials Unit)

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Canvassing

• May/June 2008 6 weeks
• 4 canvassers recruited and trained
• 3pm-7pm Mon-Fri 11am-3pm Sat
• Whole area canvassed twice
• Spoke to 2129 of the 3468 households (61 of
  households)
• 500 new boxes delivered
• 29 champions 29 language issues

12
Canvassing

• Awareness
• Day/time of collection materials
• Attitudes
• Promote positive recycling attitudes
• Barriers
• Provide bags boxes discuss problems
• Recyclers and non-recyclers - different
• Log sheets
• Leaflets

13
Measurement

• Participation Monitoring (WRAP 2006)
• Same day as recycling collection
• Independent monitor
• 3 weeks
• Participation household recycles at least once
• NB. Measuring participation, not capture
• March/April 2008
• July 2008
• October 2008

14
Preliminary Results overall
The effect of canvassing on household recycling
Canvassing raised recycling by 7.6
15
Preliminary Results neighbourhood effects
The effect of canvassing on household recycling,
by district
Canvassing was more effective in raising
recycling rate in Old Trafford than in Gorse Hill.
16
Costs

• Canvassing costs 5605.59
• Wages of 4 canvassers
• Additional hours for Emerge supervision
• Expenses (phone, training)
• (not bags, boxes, jackets, data entry,
  supervision)
• Additional recyclers 233 households
• Cost for each new household that started
  recycling 24.06

17
Canvassing - Issues

• Canvassers
• Base
• Supplies
• Bag/trolley
• Log sheets
• Specific issues on Emerge service
• Progress reports
• Emerge/IPEG support
• Information
• Champions, local recycling facilities, what
  happens to recycled stuff?

18
Canvassing - Issues

• Emerge Service
• Mostly happy - Significant minority raised
• Replacement bags
• Replacement and broken boxes
• Missed collections? Lack of information
• Contamination
• Alternative containers?
• People get disheartened and get out of the habit
• it may not be perfect, but please give it
  another go
• Green bin complaints

19
Next steps

• Participation Monitoring October 2008
• Recycling decay?
• Further Analysis
• Neighbourhood effects (Ethnicity, Poverty)
• Street effects
• Report for Emerge
• Dissemination of findings?

20
How to get those recycling boxes out a
randomised controlled trail of a door to door
recycling campaign

• Sarah Cotterill, Peter John and Hanhua Liu
• Institute for Political and Economic Governance
• http//www.ipeg.org.uk