Delivery and impact of household waste prevention intervention campaigns (at the local level)
Abstract
This paper presents one strand of the findings from a comprehensive synthesis review of policy-relevant evidence on household waste prevention. Understanding what is achievable in terms of local household waste prevention intervention campaigns enables policy makers, local authorities and practitioners to identify optimum approaches to deliver effective behaviour change. The results of the evidence have been assembled and are discussed in two contexts: (1) the delivery of intervention campaigns as a package of measures used to 'enable', 'engage' and 'encourage' householders to change their behaviour; and (2) the impact of local household waste prevention intervention campaigns in terms of tonnage data. Waste prevention measures adopted include home composting, reducing food waste, smart shopping, donating items for reuse, small changes in the home, reducing junk mail and using cloth/reusable nappies. In terms of diverting biodegradable municipal waste from landfill, the biggest impacts can be attributed to food waste prevention (1.5 kg household(- 1) week(-1)) and home composting (2.9 kg household( -1) week(-1)). Projects providing a package of other waste prevention interventions have shown a very wide range of impacts: a broad indication is that such a package could achieve around 0.5 to 1 kg household(-1) week(- 1) reduction at source. Disaggregating which waste prevention measures influenced uptake is generally not possible, but the evidence suggests that this does not matter: behaviour change has been supported by integrating a range of intervention tools and campaign promotions which have made a collective rather than isolated difference: it is a collection and an accumulation of measures that will have impact.
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A review of UK household general waste intervention campaigns found a cumulative effect from a range of strategies was more effective than an isolated campaign, and self-weighing was an important motivator.
“On the other hand, a review of household general waste intervention campaigns in the UK found that a cumulative effect from a range of intervention strategies was more effective than an isolated campaign in reducing food and other types of waste, and that self-weighing was an important motivator in this effort as it provided a cue for participants to acknowledge and disrupt an existing habit (Shar”
From Waste watchers: A food waste reduction intervention among households in Arizona (2021) · cites this paper as Sharp et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Sharp, V., Giorgi, S., & Wilson, D. C.
- Affiliations
- The Social Marketing Practice, Didcot, UK,
- Brook Lyndhurst (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Sharp, Veronica
- Venue
- Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-03
- Volume
- 28
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 256-268
- ISSN
- 0734-242X (ISSN-L)
- 1096-3669
- OpenAlex
- W2122228585
- Cited by
- 65
- References
- 8
- Citations by year
- 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 6.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, UK Government
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Municipal Solid Waste Management
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Waste Management and Disposal › Waste Management and Recycling
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Keywords
- behavior change, home composting, food waste reduction, smart shopping, biodegradable municipal waste, landfill diversion, local government
- MeSH terms
- Behavior, Conservation of Natural Resources, Family Characteristics, United Kingdom, Humans, Waste Management
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