And, it has emerged that the Waste and Resources Action Programme is to push the lifestyle rather than environmental credentials of recycling in its new national awareness campaign.
The APSWG meeting in Westminster yesterday saw representatives from the public, private and community sector discussing how to engage the public in improving waste and recycling in the UK.
Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency, said that the public were being bombarded with lots of different messages – not just on recycling, but also on other waste issues such as flytipping – and asked: “Are we doing a bit too much?”
Neil Thornton, Defra's Director of Environmental Quality and Waste, said that simply informing people about recycling would not bring about behavioural change. “We can't tell people to behave differently,” he said, adding that environmental matters are not seen as personal by householders.
Mr Thornton, who is the most senior government official in waste, said: “Sometimes it's right to bribe people rather than cajole or force them.”
”Sometimes it's right to bribe people rather than cajole or force them.“
– Neil Thornton, Defra
This sentiment seemed to go hand-in-hand with comments from environment minister Elliot Morley, who was also present at the meeting in Westminster. Reiterating comments he has made previously this month, Mr Morley said he is looking to establish local authority trials to offer residents financial incentives to recycle. The minister said that he was keen on pilot programmes where taxpayers are rewarded for their recycling, but Mr Morley appeared to rule out a “tax on bins”.
The APSWG meeting came as preparations are underway for a national waste awareness campaign due to start in September, which is being delivered by WRAP, the Waste and Resources Action Programme.
National campaign
Gareth Lloyd, who as director of communications at WRAP is responsible for the new national campaign, said it would be “not a shock campaign, but a hearts and minds campaign”.
WRAP has 10 million over two years to spend on the campaign, and is currently working two possible messages for the campaign before unveiling its preferred “creative” element for the campaign next month.
Mr Lloyd said WRAP will not be looking to raise awareness among people who do not currently recycle, but that they were aiming to get people who recycled occasionally to do so more often.
The campaign is likely to see some sort of colour-coding used for different materials to make the recycling process simple for householders, and an awareness campaign making people feel “everyone is doing it, there's value in it and there's local benefit to it”. The WRAP communications director said they would be ignoring environmental aspects of recycling, instead they would be pushing recycling at the “lifestyle audience”.
LATS
Mr Morley said that the Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme would also be important in making taxpayers more aware of what was happening to their waste.
The LATS system will see councils fined 200 for every tonne of biodegrable waste they send to landfill above the amount of tradeable allowances they hold. Mr Morley said he was pleased the system has been designed so that householders where recycling performances are poor will want to know why their Council Tax is increased if councils cannot stick to their landfill limits.
Subscribe for free