How effective communications can transform new and existing food recycling schemes

Resource Futures’ consultant Sammy Moody highlights how it will be vital to get communications right around the introduction of food collections to ensure householders and businesses engage with the scheme.

An estimated 10.7M tonnes of food is wasted in the UK each year with 60% of this coming from households¹. Without separate food collections in many places, much of this ends up in landfill where it decomposes to produce methane and CO₂, both of which significantly contribute to warming our planet.

According to WRAP, the greenhouse gas emissions associated with wasted edible food and drink in the UK equated to around 18M tonnes of CO₂ in 2021/22: the equivalent to that generated by one in five cars on UK roads². 

New legislation under the Environment Act means that by 2025 businesses must be provided with separate food collections and by 2026 councils must provide separate food collections to all households.

This policy therefore holds the potential to dramatically reduce waste-related greenhouse gasses whilst also upping stagnant recycling rates and unlocking thousands of pounds worth of disposal cost-savings for local authorities.

However, providing a food collection is only the first step in realising this potential value. Despite 184 councils (out of the 317 in the UK) offering separate food collections, roughly one in five people (18%) who have a food bin collection do not take advantage of the service.  Compared to dry recycling, food recycling is also less normalised³; whilst most people recycle their cans, bottles, paper and card, many continue to throw food in with their general waste. 

A missed opportunity

For councils about to introduce separate food collections, there’s a lot to think about: new vehicles, containers, tipping locations and additional staff all need to be considered and paid for. But what about their communications with residents and businesses? Often considered a ‘nice-to-have’ for cash-strapped councils, well designed communications and campaigns can be the key to ensuring new food collections have sufficient uptake to make the service worthwhile and deliver results.

Encouraging food waste recycling

Implementing food waste collections requires an ask of residents to both shift their daily routines and to adopt new behaviours. Human behaviours are inherently complex and diverse, so it is crucial to understand why certain attitudes are prevalent and how we can change peoples’ minds when introducing recycling services. This is especially the case when it comes to food.

Information and opportunity are not enough

While providing information and opportunities to recycle food is essential, this alone is not always enough to drive the required behaviour change. Food waste is one of the more challenging recycling streams- due to perceived hygiene related issues and extra ‘hassle’⁴, so people often need more encouragement to motivate them to adopt this behaviour. Effectively highlighting the environmental, social, and even economic benefits of food waste recycling adds incentive, but it is important to understand your target audience and their existing priorities. What might galvanise one person to start recycling their food will have no effect on another – so you may need several key messages to bring about concerted behavioural change across different communities.

Good intentions do not always equate to actions.

In behavioural science terms, this is known at the intention-action gap; studies investigating this in relation to household recycling have found that people perceive themselves to be better at recycling and more frequent recyclers than they really are.

Food waste may deepen this gap if people perceive it to be ‘unclean’ or ‘smelly’ but also think of themselves as doing the right thing. Bridging the gap between intention and action requires a deeper dive into specific motivations within socio-demographic groups.

People need reminders

Even the recycling habits of the most well-intentioned participants can wane over time. Councils that have introduced food collections often observe a drop in participation rates as initial enthusiasm fades (or the free caddy liners provided run out⁵).

Regular food recycling interventions really work. In a recent evaluation of an Essex County Council food campaign in one town, we found that participation surged by an impressive 79%. Bristol Waste Company also reported a 16% increase in food waste collected for recycling following their campaign to divert food from the black bins.

The effects of these communications can also spill over into other areas; in our experience, the authorities we work with often see an increase in dry recycling rates after deploying food communications, too.

The introduction of separate food waste collections under the new Simpler Recycling legislation presents a significant opportunity to raise UK recycling rates and reduce waste-related greenhouse gas emissions – both of which will be essential for authorities to achieve net zero.

However, the success of this initiative hinges not only on providing the necessary infrastructure for food collections but also on effectively communicating with residents to drive behavioural change. Not investing in a robust communications plan during the introductory phase could mean that a once-in-a-generation opportunity goes to waste, with insufficient participation in food recycling undermining the potential benefits.

For food collections to work, residents will need to understand exactly what councils are asking of them and why, in a language that speaks to them and with communications that address the hesitations and worries they might have around participation.

If you’re looking to craft effective communications around your recycling services and achieve successful uptake and sustained engagement in your food waste collections, have a chat to our behaviour change team.

¹ WRAP, 2023, UK Food Waste & Food Surplus – Key Facts. Link [Accessed on 11/9/24]

² According to WRAP’s Local Authorities portal

³ WRAP, 2023, Recycling Tracker Survey: Spring 2023. Link. [Accessed on 11/9/24]

⁴ Circular, 2021. Positive attitude vs Actual behaviour – The value action gap. Link. [Accessed on 10/9/24]

⁵ Provision of free liners certainly removes a barrier to food recycling for some but are not an essential element as plenty of councils with successful food collections do not provide them.