Waste Prevention Public Engagement Strategy for Essex Waste Prevention Partnership

In 2009 Resource Futures were commissioned by WRAP to work with the Essex Waste Prevention Partnership (EWPP) to research and develop a waste prevention strategy and communications plan for the EWPP. As part of the project Resource Futures trialled use of CACI’s new GreenACORN demographic mapping tool.

The main objective of the project wasto assist EWPP to meet or exceed its residual waste reduction targets of 35% and 45% of 2000-01 residual waste levels by 2015 and 2020 (respectively) through waste prevention initiatives complementing existing recycling services and communications.

About Essex

Essex is a large, predominantly rural, county with around 1.35 million residents. Some parts are particularly densely populated and there are areas of mixed affluence and deprivation, There is also an ageing population, many commuters, one person (often elderly), married (with/without children) and pensioner households.

There is a lower than average black and minority ethnic (BME) population, although there are pockets of migrant workers from Eastern Europe, transient populations and some coastal resort towns with high tourist numbers.

Essex County Council is responsible for disposal of the county’s waste with twelve district/borough councils collecting the waste and recyclables. Recycling and composting rates have recently increased due to improved kerbside recycling collections, bring sites and household waste recycling centres in the county.

Strategy formulation:

The first task for Resource Futures was a period of detailed research which included:

• reviewing previous and current waste prevention activities and their success levels
• assessing the potential impact of planned activities
• interviewing  EWPP representatives responsible for delivering waste prevention
• reviewing waste composition and survey data to establish current recycling and waste prevention attitudes
• organising a stakeholder day with representatives from the community, third and voluntary sectors

Priority materials:

From the research results, two priority material streams were then chosen which were organic materials (food and garden waste) and reusable bulky goods and other household items

Behaviours:

Key behaviour changes in relation to these materials were also then identified as:

• wasting less food
• taking up or improving composting at home
• donating or purchasing reusable bulky goods

Audiences:

CACI’s GreenACORN audience categories were then applied to understand the environmental orientation of audiences and assist in the planning and delivery of initiatives. GreenACORN enables the geographical location of these groups to be shown on maps as data is available to a postcode level allowing for targeting of specific campaign audiences.

GreenACORN was developed in response to Defra’s pro-environmental attitudinal model by CACI (owners of the original ACORN classification system) and uses reported environmental attitudes and behaviours to classify audiences into seven categories as follows:

• enthusiastic green
• waste not, want not
• patchy green
• passive spectator
• family first
• not our problem
• the unconcerned

The CACI GreenACORN audiences most likely to generate target materials and/or willing to adopt the behaviours were then identified as:

• organic materials (food waste) – Waste Not Want Nots, Patchy Greens and Family Firsts
• starting to composting at home - Patchy Greens, Family Firsts
• improving composting at home - Enthusiastic Greens, Waste Not Want Nots
• donating reusable bulky goods - Enthusiastic Greens, Patchy Greens, Family Firsts
• purchasing reusable bulky goods - Passive Spectators, Family Firsts

Messaging:

CACI’s GreenACORN data was then used to match key audiences to the messages they were most likely to respond to:

• you are helping the environment (Enthusiastic Greens and Patchy Greens)
• you have a key role to play (Waste Not Want Nots)
• you can save money (Passive Spectators and Family Firsts)
• you can make a difference (Enthusiastic Greens and Patchy Greens)

Resource Futures also used the Defra 4Es model to inform messaging seeking to enable, encourage and engage people and communities and encourage EWPP to lead by example (exemplify).

Strategy delivery:

Food waste and home composting:

For this priority material and behaviours the strategy focused on community capacity building and integration. This involved finding and supporting local groups, organisations, community members and volunteers to deliver workshops, roadshows, events, talks and presentations to local networks and audiences. Working titles of ‘Kitchen Angels’ and ‘Compost Doctors’ were assigned to these initiatives.

Toolkits, advertorials/advertising and information packs were also to be provided by EWPP and general communications (website content, PR, information in local community/council newsletters) from EWPP members to help promote the on-the-ground activity and desired behaviours.

Bulky waste:

For bulky waste, the research indicated that local authority bulky waste collections required greater consistency before reuse and recycling could be maximised. A review of local third sector, community and voluntary sector capacity was recommended to identify opportunities to expand and integrate services to allow future promotion of bulky waste activities and encourage increased demand/supply.

In the short-term the strategy recommended provision for geographically targeted promotion of purchasing and donation behaviours through targeted leafleting.

Activity to date:

A volunteer scheme contract was awarded in September 2010 and communication plans have been refined, with WRAP, to reflect current EWPP capabilities. Communications resources are being developed for the initial focus of food waste reduction and home composting.

Learning outcomes:

GreenACORN can be a useful tool to help focus messages and segment audiences, however in the context of waste prevention campaign planning, the behaviours and attitudes to the environment of various audiences provided by GreenACORN should be overlaid with other geographically focused information (such as waste data) and the local media consumed by audiences to ensure accurate geographical and media targeting of audiences. 

GreenACORN allows users to paint a picture of populations across a number of headings such as travel behaviour, reduce, reuse and recycle and attitudes and knowledge about the environment.  It can also produce geographical maps for targeting the specific locations for waste prevention activities and as such for this project and did provide a focus for limited resources.