Promoting Household Recycling To Reduce Waste

Objectives

Through this work, Devon County Council (in partnership with nine authorities in Devon) is looking to:

• Increase recycling, food waste and garden waste capture rates.
• Decrease household residual waste.
• Decrease contamination in household recycling.
• Increase uptake in home composting.
• Increase awareness around waste minimisation and reuse.
• Promote sign ups to the Mailing Preference Service

Our Advisors also assist in county-wide promotional work when required.

Approach

The three full-time Waste and Recycling Advisors provide face-to-face engagement, each with a specific remit to cover three of Devon’s nine districts. Advisors spend between seven and 19 weeks per year in each area – determined by the size of population within that district. Close liaison with each local authority partner means that the work is tailored to their particular needs during the allocated time frame.

The main thrust of the work for the Advisors is visiting households: speaking to residents about their local services and providing them with additional containers to enable increased use of the services. In addition, and where appropriate, residents are engaged with waste reduction messages.

Where an authority specifically requires work in flats and multi-occupancy buildings, Advisors speak with residents and, if required, will assist in assessing the communal recycling facilities/infrastructure at each location, in order to facilitate improved recycling.

Outcomes

This ongoing project has seen many positive outcomes over the last seven years. At the end of the most recent year (2023-2024) these included:

• 15,233 households visited.
• 6,110 residents spoken to on the doorstep.
• 2,390 recycling containers given out.
• High contact rates on the doorstep (averaged 38.4% across all areas).

The project has received renewed funding to continue with this work until 2025.