Through communication campaigns, we can reach large numbers of north London residents. We can target specific audiences, using behaviour change methodology to tailor messages and address barriers to change.
During each year of this plan, three high profile behaviour change campaigns will be delivered. Wherever possible, campaigns will include an element of face-to-face engagement, as well as public relations activity or news releases to amplify messages through media coverage.
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We have set out below high profile campaign topics for consideration. This list will be regularly reviewed with NLWA Members and borough officers to ensure priorities are reflected.
Priority themes will be agreed with our members recycling working group and could include:
Household recycling: North London has one of the most extensive recycling services in the country, ensuring that packaging can be collected and turned into something new. However, we still face considerable challenges, with not enough residents recycling as much as they could, or too many non-recyclable items put in the recycling and making it unusable. There are also specific environmental benefits of ensuring that plastics get recycled and aren’t just disposed of as waste. Three possible campaigns topics would therefore be: increasing recycling participation, reducing contamination, and increasing plastics recycling.
Food waste prevention: Food is high in embodied carbon because of all the energy and resources used to grow, store, and transport it. Reducing the amount of avoidable food waste going into either the rubbish bin, or food waste recycling caddies, should be one of our top priorities.
Reusable alternatives to single-use: One of the best ways we can use resources more responsibly is to use reusable items, instead of single-use, disposable ones. NLWA already provides a reusable nappy subsidy for parents and parents-to-be. We could encourage residents to use other items like reusable coffee cups, and period products.
Out of home recycling/reuse: Electrical items, clothes and batteries are high in embodied carbon, so it is essential that they do not simply end up in residents’ rubbish bins. There are lots of ways that these items can be reused or recycled, ensuring that the maximum value is extracted from them before its ‘end of life’.
Increase use of repair services: Repair has a vital role to play in keeping products in use for longer. Lots more needs to be done to improve the repairability of products, but we can also direct residents to good repair services and use behaviour change techniques to promote the benefits of repair.
A number of more targeted advertising campaigns will also be run throughout each year. These will mainly be delivered digitally where it’s possible to target specific audiences according to location or demographics. The campaigns will promote waste prevention and recycling behaviour change messages. They will also support themed events such as Circular Economy Week, Plastic Free July, Recycle Week or Refill Day.
It is important to educate the next generation of adults by providing an opportunity to establish ‘good’ waste prevention and recycling behaviours for a lifetime. To support that we will draw on the outcomes of our research undertaken with north London primary schools to enable them to overcome the identified barriers of time, resources, and knowledge, to help them embed waste education into the school culture. Initially we will create and maintain an on-going resource hub that includes both signposting to existing external resources and those that we will produce, to address current gaps in understanding. We will also work with educators to develop meaningful support offers that provide the tools and knowledge for them to act on waste minimisation, through the lessons they teach and the facilities they utilise.
We are building a brand-new education centre at EcoPark House, as part of the North London Heat and Power Plant development. Once complete, this centre will welcome schools and local interest groups, host talks and events. It will also include interactive displays which demonstrate the problems caused by global resource over-consumption and show what more circular resource use could look like.
We want to let residents see north London’s waste and recycling for themselves. Observing the vast volume of waste produced every day, and the challenges of processing it, is an essential first step towards adoption of more sustainable behaviours. We will work with partners to establish educational visits at our reuse and recycling centres, energy from waste facility and the materials recovery facility. We will also explore ways to increase the educational value of our reuse and recycling centres through signage or face-to-face engagement.
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