Milton Keynes council has partnered with Coca-Cola Enterprises to develop a new pilot community project to improve local recycling after securing funding for from Defra.
The Recycle for your Community scheme will see select local groups and organisations being offered financial incentives of up to 1,500 to collect recycling pledges- aimed at encouraging residents to recycle more of their waste.
Community groups from two areas of Milton Keynes will engage with residents to share information on what they do and do not recycle.
The scheme is being trialled between April and August 2013 by six separate community groups in the Netherfield and Coffee Hall areas, which have been given specialist training to understand what happens to material once it has been collected for recycling in their communities.
After carrying out a survey with each resident on recycling, the community groups will advise residents on how they can recycle more. These residents are then contacted again at a later date in order to monitor recycling progress in the area, with bonuses given to groups if recycling increases and non-recyclable waste levels fall.
The council and Coca-Cola Enterprises secured funding for the pilot from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)s 2 million Household Reward and Recognition Scheme, which was launched as part of the June 2011 Waste Review to reward people for adopting positive behaviours towards managing waste, (see letsrecycle.com story).
Relationships
Milton Keynes councils pilot scheme will test the power of peer-to-peer relationships and the impact of pledging on recycling behaviour; the impact of financial incentives on engaging with communities; and the impact of improved local knowledge of local collection processes and what happens to recycled material. It is hoped that it will serve as a best practice case study for other local authorities to learn from and adopt.
Andy Hudson, head of environment and waste at Milton Keynes council, said: Milton Keynes council is a pioneer in recycling and we are delighted to have teamed up with Coca-Cola Enterprises to launch this ground-breaking national trial scheme. Local community groups are able to secure funds for their projects by encouraging their friends and neighbours to recycle more. We hope the result will be that residents in these areas have a better understanding of our recycling scheme and will contribute to raising our recycling rate further.
“We strongly believe in the power of collaboration and relationships in encouraging positive behaviour change. CCE is committed to improving the standards of recycling in the home, both through the collection processes available and by raising awareness amongst householders”
Nick Brown, Coca-Cola Enterprises
Nick Brown, recycling associate director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, said: We strongly believe in the power of collaboration and relationships in encouraging positive behaviour change. CCE is committed to improving the standards of recycling in the home, both through the collection processes available and by raising awareness amongst householders. As a local business operating in the Milton Keynes area through our manufacturing site and Cold Drinks Centre, we are particularly pleased to be supporting the council in this community focused project.
Coca Cola Enterprises is one of a small number of private companies to team up with a local authority to help drive-up recycling. In 2011, consumer goods giant Unilever worked with Torbay council in 2011 to directly support the council’s mixed plastics recycling service by helping topublicise the scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
A similar approach was also taken by retailer Marks & Spencer in February 2010, when it announced plans to work directly with four local authority waste partnerships to promote producer responsibility (see letsrecycle.com story).
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