Capital Incentives helps Notts CC boost recycling

A scheme incorporating both community and household incentives was effective in helping to bring about a reduction in the amount of residual waste in two trial areas in Nottinghamshire.

Nottinghamshire is a diverse county with urban, rural and former coalfield areas.

The population is approximately 750,000 people with 4.35 per cent of residents coming from ethnic minorities.

The Nottinghamshire Household Incentive Scheme (HIS) was introduced to examine the impact of providing financial incentives upon the waste management behaviour of communities in Nottinghamshire.

In 2005/06 the recycling and composting rate for the county was 37 per cent.

The long term target for Nottinghamshire is to achieve a recycling rate of 50 per cent by 2018.

The two collection authorities that volunteered to be partners in the incentive scheme were Rushcliffe and Mansfield.

Rushcliffe is a high performing Borough Council and in 2005 it had a recycling and composting rate of 47 per cent.

Mansfield is regarded as a low performing District Council; in 2005 it recycled and composted 17 per cent of its waste.

Involving these two very different authorities enabled the project to investigate the impact of recycling incentives on diverse socio economic backgrounds.

One control area was selected for each authority and publicity materials about the incentive were not delivered in these areas in order to allow a direct comparison to be made and determine whether the incentive was making an impact.

The pilot scheme ran for six months.

The incentive scheme, created and managed by Capital Incentives and Motivation, included both community and household prizes.

The community prizes were: 1st prize - GBP5,000 for the community that managed to reduce their waste by the greatest amount in the six-month period of the scheme; 2nd prize - GBP3,000 allocated on the same basis; 3rd prize - GBP1,000 allocated on the same basis.

In addition to the community prizes there was a second tier of incentives offered in the form of a random prize draw for householders.

If householders put their bin out on the correct day with the correct materials in it and they were selected, they would be eligible to win either GBP30 in Capital Bonds vouchers, which can be spent at over 140 famous high street chains, or a fashionable rucksack made from recycled materials.

A random number generator programme was used to select the household on the recycling round.

After checking with the recycling crews that the right materials were in the recycling bin the project co-ordinator contacted the prize winners and discussed their recycling habits with them before sending them their prize.

A number of communications tools were used including a launch ceremony and closing ceremony, leaflets and posters, PR, press and radio advertising, information on the Nottinghamshire County Council website, and promotional gifts, which were given out at road shows, school visits, community meetings and launch events.

The results for Mansfield and Rushcliffe showed that residual waste was reduced by 25 tonnes in the six incentive areas during the six months that the incentive scheme ran.

While residual waste was also reduced in the control areas, it was much more significant in the incentive scheme areas.

Mick Allen from Nottinghamshire County Council said: "The incentive scheme incorporating both community and household incentives was effective in helping to bring about a reduction in the amount of residual waste in the trial areas; the increase in the amount of materials recycled also contributed to the success of the scheme".

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