Slim Your Bin campaign hits out at paper-funded report

The regional waste awareness campaign was the first of its kind when it was set up in 1998, and much of the lessons learned have gone towards other local, regional and national waste education programmes.

Run by the Anglian Regional Waste Awareness Campaign (ARWAC), Slim Your Bin has gained the vital support of Anglian Television, won a national recycling award and has so far attracted over 120,000 people to its roadshows.

”The Slim Your Bin campaign has been very successful at raising awareness of recycling and each year the lessons learnt have been used to improve the campaign.“
– Emma McCrea, Cambridgeshire county council

But while the UK awaits the successor to the national Rethink Rubbish campaign, expected to be announced in June (see letsrecycle.com story), ARWAC has refuted claims in a recent report that it has achieved “very little”.

The offending remarks came in Understanding Recycling Behaviour volume 2, a study from Professor Peter Tucker of the University of Paisley, funded by companies including Cheshire Recycling and StoraEnso.

Following comments on another scheme which had achieved only a 2% improvement in its recycling rate after 18 months of “intensive” campaigning, the report said: “Anglia region's 'Slim Your Bin' campaign returned much more dismal results”.

But speaking to letsrecycle.com, ARWAC spokesperson Emma McCrea said: “I emphatically refute that. I don't think it has been dismal at all. I am unsure where Professor Tucker has got his information from as, to the best of my knowledge, he has not contacted anyone at the ARWAC. I would be interested to see the data that backs up this statement.”

Evidence
Supporting ARWAC's confidence, a report by BMG Research, published in August 2003, found that out of those surveyed in the county, 70% had seen the Slim Your Bin campaign. Of those that had seen the campaign, the study found that more than a third had either started recycling or increased their recycling “as a result of seeing the campaign”.

”It was just a throwaway remark. I have done absolutely no analysis of the campaign.“
– Prof. Tucker, University of Paisley
These results compared to only one in eight people in Cambridgeshire who had seen the national Rethink Rubbish campaign (13%) and 25% of those seeing the campaign starting or increasing their recycling as a result.

Lewis Herbert of Anglia Polytechnic University's WasteWISE, said: “There is evidence that East Anglia's faster household waste recycling growth has been assisted by ARWAC – to become the top region in the 2002/3 DEFRA data from third three years ago.”

“Much of the nuts and bolts of the national campaign's regional/area focus is based on – or lessons learnt from – the Anglia region, and I believe will continue under WRAP,” he added.

Professor Tucker declined to comment on the matter, beyond saying that his statement on Anglia's Slim Your Bin campaign had been a “throwaway remark”. He confirmed to letsrecycle.com: “I have done absolutely no analysis of the campaign.”

Behaviour
Ms McCrea, who is waste campaigns officer at Cambridgeshire county council, accepted that it is difficult to establish a direct link between campaign successes and behaviour change, partly because there are so many other changes going on in recycling, including new schemes coming on line.

ARWAC shares lessons learned each year with all who are interested

But she said: “The (Slim Your Bin) campaign has been very successful at raising awareness of recycling and each year the lessons learnt have been used to improve the campaign.”

These lessons learned are shared every year with any local authorities interested in attending ARWAC's annual seminar. The next seminar is to be held tomorrow (26/02/04) at Peterhouse in Cambridge.

As well as the latest insights from the Anglia campaign, those attending the seminar will hear from Chris Davey of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and Joy Blizzard from the Devon awareness campaign.

For more information on the ARWAC annual seminar tomorrow, contact Emma McCrea on 01223 717572, or email Emma.McCrea@cambridgeshire.gov.uk