Keep Britain Tidy is best known for our action on litter. In addition, we have a proud 35-year history of successfully educating the public to recycle more and prevent waste whilst we also campaign for system improvements like Extended Producer Responsibility to amplify these critical behaviour changes.
For the past 20 years we’ve witnessed the development of a waste management system in the UK that’s been largely driven by EU waste laws built on the concept of the waste hierarchy (more commonly communicated to the public as ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’). While this hierarchy tells us that recycling is only the third best option when looking to reduce the environmental impact of what we purchase, use and throw away, the UK policy landscape has prioritised recycling over waste prevention. Consequently, this has led to recycling becoming an ‘established norm’ with people feeling they’re ‘doing their bit’ by recycling alone. While it should not be discouraged, the focus on recycling is in direct contrast with the waste hierarchy. We urgently need to drive the widespread adoption of waste prevention behaviours and curb consumption to help bring natural resource use and carbon emissions down to environmentally sustainable levels.
To better understand the waste hierarchy issue and explore it in more detail, we commissioned new research and the consequent findings in our new report, Shifting the Public’s Focus from Recycling to Waste Prevention. Our key discovery was that there’s a major barrier to driving urgently needed waste reduction and reuse behaviours and a fundamental misunderstanding amongst the public of what waste prevention actually means. For instance, most people associate waste more with what they throw away than with what they buy and people think of ‘wasting better’ rather than ‘wasting less’. With the Government’s waste prevention policies being continuously delayed, the onus now is therefore on policy-makers and practitioners to work together; to educate and motivate people to move beyond recycling and make choices that reduce the environmental impact of what they purchase in the first place.
So, what actions can be taken to drive change and help move people up the waste hierarchy, from recycling to waste prevention?
• Behaviour change around waste prevention can be facilitated by furthering the physical opportunities available to people to prevent waste, at the same time as developing their motivation and skills – and it’s important these types of barriers are removed.
• However, people’s lack of understanding of the waste hierarchy (their psychological capability, or knowledge) is a significant, but overlooked, barrier to waste prevention that also needs to be addressed. Moving people up the waste hierarchy is a huge challenge when our current systems are geared towards increased consumption of resources.
• Collectively, we must attempt to counteract the marketing messages that people are increasingly exposed to, continually pushing them to buy more stuff. Advertising spending in the UK was projected to reach £39.4bn in 2022 and is estimated to surpass £48bn by 2027.
To stand any chance of adequately responding to the climate and nature emergency, all those with an interest in this area need to come together, to speak with one voice, in the same language. They need to use all means at their disposal to educate and motivate people to move beyond recycling and make choices that reduce the environmental impact of what they purchase in the first place.
Local authorities are crucial here as they are people’s most prominent source of information about recycling. Since the start of the new year, it’s been encouraging to see so many local authorities supporting and amplifying messages from the UK’s first ever Buy Nothing New Month which we launched in January. The campaign was ultimately designed to provide support and the social opportunity for people to move up the waste hierarchy and reduce their environmental impact in a way that works for them. We called on people to rethink what they wanted versus what they needed, reconsider if they could repair versus replace and think about whether they could rent, borrow or buy second-hand rather than buy new.
Our monitoring and evaluation of Buy Nothing New Month will help develop the evidence base around how to help people move up the waste hierarchy to buying less stuff and maximising the life of stuff that already exists. Our research and this campaign is just the beginning, and we’re looking forward to inviting other parties to collaborate with us, debate and share evidence to take this important agenda forward.
The report, the research that underpins it and the Buy Nothing New Month campaign have been made possible thanks to an award from Postcode Earth Trust, a grant-giving Trust funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Allison Ogden-Newton is chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy.
