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.

Waste prevention indicators and their implications from a life cycle perspective: a review

“…Prevention extent, such as frequency and the number of reuse times, is also important. WPBs that require major changes for consumer are often least practiced, whereas the behaviors that need little effort, such as donation, tend to be practiced [61]. In this context, some behaviors might actually result in increased environmental impacts even if they are generally regarded as WPBs.…”

“…Direct measurements and waste composition surveys combining several statistical variables are applicable as monitoring methods [61,[63][64][65]. It is also important that the monitoring begins before the waste prevention policy takes effect [62].…”

“…Periodic monitoring is essential for a waste prevention policy to (1) obtain and accumulate robust and high quality data; (2) confirm that the correct decisions are made about where to prioritize resources, and (3) ensure that waste prevention is being effective and is promoting behavioral change, although unlike recycling, waste prevention is difficult to measure because it results in the elimination of the material [2,[59][60][61][62]. Direct measurements and waste composition surveys combining several statistical variables are applicable as monitoring methods [61,[63][64][65].…”

“…The Waste and Resources Evidence Programme (WREP) of DEFRA undertook a wider research project to consolidate the policy-relevant evidence base that applies to household waste prevention [2,59,61]. One of the waste prevention research projects, conducted by Dorset Country Council in the UK during 2005-2008, comprised 7 types of waste prevention campaigns for householders.…”

Environmental management system ISO 14001: effective waste minimisation in small and medium enterprises in India

“…4 Sharp et al, 2010). Notwithstanding, the key emphasis is commonly placed on the adoption of Cleaner Production (CP) technologies as a means of bringing about waste reductions and achieving waste prevention.…”