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Speedy results claimed by Southwark door-knockers

Southwark Council has secured a 2% increase in materials collected by its doorstep recycling service after only a month of a door knocking campaign by consultant Business Eco.

The company is in the process of covering the whole borough to promote to communicate with residents on opportunities to recycle and educate them about how collection systems work. This will involve calls to 50,000 houses and 10,000 flats.

During this exercise the company has door knocked its half millionth householder, who was presented with a bottle of organic champagne to mark the event.
The company said that many councils are using behavioural change campaigns to increase public participation.

It said that face-to-face contact make sit difficult for residents to ignore the message.
Business Eco has run 22 campaigns in London and the south east.
These saw an increase in participation from 20.4% to 27.5% in Redbridge, a trebling of plastic recycling tonnage in Brent and a 25% increase in overall recycling tonnage in Newham.

Fund
The company has used money from the 24.9m London Recycling Fund to run communication campaigns that complement its door knocking.

These have included advertisements on buses in east London, advertising in cinemas and on billboards and educational packs for schools. Monitoring of the effectiveness of these campaigns would enable Business Eco to target the most effective action on the hardest to reach members of the public, it said.

Meanwhile, Westminster Council has secured a 10% rise in its recycling participation rate through in 'message in a bottle' lottery.

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Waste and recycling in London

Residents were asked to put their names on glass or plastic materials in their recycling – preferably bottles – and 30 winners drawn at random received 50 Sainsbury vouchers.
The competition range for a week and saw participation rise form 27% to 37% of households.

Tonnages collected rose from 142 to 167, an 18% increase.

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