The boroughs each secured grant funding to deliver rewards projects through the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG)’s £11.1m Recycling Reward Scheme, with Bexley gaining £405,743, Camden £435,968 and Hackney £637,031.
The schemes will run separately from one another, but the work was procured jointly by the three boroughs.
Bexley was the first local authority in the country to use Local Green Points to deliver a reward scheme in a bid to motivate residents to reduce residual waste, and has been providing a scheme for its 17,000 purpose-built flats since 2012.
‘New approach’
Stephen Didsbury, head of waste and street services for the borough, said the new scheme for Bexley’s 78,000 kerbside properties is an “exciting step forward”.
Mr Didsbury said: “We started the scheme on the Thamesmead Estate and then rolled it out to all our purpose-built flats. Our flats scheme, with its focus on personal rewards, works well for this group of residents and continues to deliver ongoing savings in waste sent for disposal.
“We will use a new approach for our houses with a focus on community rewards and inter-community competition and are looking forward to working with Local Green Points on this exciting new scheme.”
Commenting on the appointment, Graham Simmonds, managing director of Local Green Points, said: “We are very aware of the recycling challenges in London, particularly for boroughs like Camden and Hackney where a high proportion of residents live in flats and estates, and for these new schemes we are planning to use competition as a key motivator – not just personal competition, but competition between communities too with leader boards and community prizes.”
All three boroughs plan to launch the new schemes to residents in autumn 2016 and will measure improvements in waste performance on a quarterly basis against the same quarter in previous years.
Fund
The announcement of the joint procurement scheme comes in the wake of claims by recycling rewards company, Greenredeem, that out of the 46 local authorities that applied and received grants from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for reward recycling schemes, only 27 have implemented an initiative so far.
With reports detailing mixed results for the schemes, Greenredeem stated, this means that 19 local authorities have chosen to “sit on their grants,” which total £5.1m in funding, rather than investing in new incentive schemes.
And, a recent government study revealed that recycling reward schemes varied greatly in their success of growing recycling rates (see letsrecycle.com story).
The report, which analyses schemes funded through the government’s Reward and Recognition Fund, states: “Overall, schemes did not experience a sea change in recycling tonnage, participation or claimed behaviour. The measured effect, however, varied widely across types of schemes.”
However, Greenredeem recently released figures of its longstanding recycling rewards schemes, reporting growths of up to four times the rate of the UK average over the last 6 years.
Rob Crumbie, director of marketing and communications at Greenredeem, said: “For local authorities to make informed decisions, a clear distinction must be made between schemes that attempt to deliver quick-win results and those that will drive sustainable behaviour change.
“There is no need for local authorities to attempt to reinvent the wheel by going it alone. To hit recycling targets, they need to look to proven methods of incentivising sustainable behaviour changes.”
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