Food waste recycling
Citizens will require a combination of capability, opportunity and motivation to recycle their food waste. It is important to think holistically about intervention design.
Key findings:
- In total 85% of survey respondents told us they were ready for the introduction of food waste collection schemes in England.
- The Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model can help intervention designers think about behaviour change in a holistic way, rather than just looking at individual components in isolation.
To achieve food recycling behaviour change:
- Strategies for increasing capacity might include ensuring clear and consistent messaging about what can and can’t be put in food waste bins.
- Strategies for increasing opportunity might include providing free bins, caddies and liners.
Strategies for increasing motivation might include ensuring bins, caddies and liners are designed to meet user needs for cleanliness, convenience and hygiene; and ensuring new services are properly resourced to run effectively from the word go.
Nationwide adoption of food waste recycling: a behaviour change problem
Diverting food waste from incineration and landfill to more environmentally friendly options such as composting and anaerobic digestion is important for achieving our long-term waste reduction goals. Currently, almost half (42%) of local authorities in England offer no form of food waste collection to households and separately collected food waste represents only a very small proportion (2.1%) of waste from households. [i], [ii]
As part of measures to tackle waste, the Government aims to provide a weekly food waste collection to every household in England.[iii] The successful implementation of food waste collection schemes hinges on a complex system of several interacting groups of actors (including citizens, waste collectors, and policy makers), operating at various levels (local authority, combined authority and central government), who must all appropriately orient their behaviour. Citizens’ behaviour in particular is a critical part of the whole system as they are the people responsible for initiating the end-of-life pathway for waste food. Without them, the whole system falls apart.
Implementing a nationwide food waste collection means asking for adoption of a new set of household food waste recycling behaviours that are not currently part of many people’s routines (see figure 1).
By understanding the influences on people’s current and desired food waste recycling behaviour, policymakers can design interventions that are more likely to be effective and maximise the level of adoption of this new set of recycling behaviours.
Figure 1. Interconnected sub-set of household food waste recycling behaviours.
Barriers and enablers to engagement with local food waste collection services
We carried out a survey of UK citizens to understand the factors that might affect levels of household food waste recycling (See ‘research methodology’ section). [iv] We then used the Capability-Opportunity-Motivation-Behaviour (COM-B) model to identify behavioural targets for interventions (see Figure 2).
The COM-B model suggests that for a behaviour to occur, there must be the capability, opportunity and motivation to perform the behaviour:
Figure 2: The COM-B model
Table 2. Definitions of COM-B components
COM-B | Definition |
Capability | Refers to people’s capacity to engage in a behaviour. Can be psychological (for example knowledge) or physical (such as skills) |
Opportunity | Refers to the environmental context surrounding a behaviour. Can be social (for example social norms) or physical (such as availability of resources). |
Motivation | Refers to the psychological processes that energise and direct behaviour. Can be automatic (for example habits) or reflective (such as values and beliefs). |
Awareness of and readiness for the introduction of food waste collections
We found that there was low awareness of the Government’s intention to provide food waste collection for all households in England: three quarters (74%) of respondents said they were not aware of this. However, once they had been made aware, a majority (85%) subsequently claimed that they were ready for the introduction of such schemes.
Barriers to behaviour change
In order to better understand potential barriers to behaviour change, we asked respondents who have access to food waste collection schemes but who do not use them to provide reasons for not recycling their food waste. While it is not possible from our survey data to analyse the significance of each of these barriers or their prevalence among the general population, they do give an indication of factors that might need to be considered in designing food waste recycling schemes. Further research is needed to learn how widespread these views are.
Capability:
- Knowledge gaps relating to the value of recycling food waste.
- Knowledge gaps relating to what should be put into food waste recycling. One respondent elaborated; “…bit more training on what goes in would be nice.”
Opportunity:
- Time costs and hassle: “It’s too much hassle.”
- Not having the space in household for an extra bin: “We don’t have space in our (rented) kitchen for an additional bin on top of the general and recycling bins.”
- Not wanting to take on the extra responsibility of separating food waste from other household waste: “I think my household are currently unprepared as this is something we do not do at the moment and would need to get into the routine of doing.”
Motivation:
- Preference for dealing with food waste in other ways, such as home-composting or feeding pets/strays.
- Perception that it is only worth using a separate food waste bin if you produce a lot of food waste: “I live alone and don’t produce enough food waste to make it worthwhile.”
- Concerns over pests, odour and hygiene within the household: “I [don’t] want it to make the house smell or attract mice/rats etc.”
- Concerns over neighbourhood pollution outside of the household, such as litter and visual clutter from the excess bins required on streets.
- Concerns relating to implementation such as unreliable collection services which may exacerbate pests and pollution.
Barriers to using compostable caddy liners
The environmental NGO WRAP surveyed householders and found that they were more likely to participate in food waste collection schemes where they were provided with liners for their food waste caddies.[v]
There is some debate about whether it might be preferable for people to use compostable plastic caddy liners in their food waste bins (as opposed to conventional plastic liners or alternatives such as newspaper). We wanted to learn more about barriers that might stop people from using them, should they be determined to be beneficial. We identified the following barriers:
Capability:
- Not knowing where to find compostable caddy liners for purchase: “I don’t know where to get them from.”
Opportunity:
- Low availability of compostable caddy liners on the market.
- Financial costs associated with buying compostable liners.
- Council not accepting compostable liners: “Our council supply us with single use polythene bags as liners, rather than compostable material.”
Motivation:
- Preference for repurposing other materials such as newspaper: “We wrap our food waste in newspaper.”
- Belief that compostable liners are wasteful: “Even though they are compostable they still are bad for the environment. They require carbon to manufacture, transport etc and I’m not entirely sure whether they break down.”
Conclusion: increasing engagement with local food waste collections
Citizens will require a combination of capability, opportunity and motivation to recycle their food waste. It is important therefore to think holistically about intervention design; tackling parts in isolation is unlikely to be effective.
Capacity
In order to build capability, it might be necessary to increase knowledge of which items can go into food waste bins (and which can’t).
Strategies for increasing capacity might include ensuring clear and consistent messaging about what can and can’t be put in food waste bins. Consideration should be given to who is the most appropriate messenger and how consistency between different local authorities might be achieved.
Opportunity
Strategies for increasing opportunity might include providing bins, caddies and liners free of change.
Motivation
Strategies for increasing motivation might include ensuring bins, caddies and liners are designed to meet user needs for cleanliness, convenience and hygiene.
In addition, our findings also hinted at a lack of faith in local authorities’ ability to collect the waste regularly and efficiently. This suggests that it will be important to ensure that authorities are properly resourced to implement effective and efficient food waste collections from day one. The risk is that if people experience a poor service, public confidence and support for food waste recycling might be undermined.
Research methodology
We conducted a survey of UK citizens, aged 18 and above in May and June 2021. Participants were recruited in a variety of ways: by Prolific (a professional data collection service); through promotion via social media and by promotion to participants in the Big Compost Experiment. In total 1,801 participants completed the survey.
For a more detailed description of our methodology, including participant demographics, see our peer-reviewed paper. [iv]
About usThis paper was written by Ayse Lisa Allison and Jenny Bird.
The authors of this briefing belong to the Plastic Waste Innovation Hub, a multidisciplinary group of academics including scientists, engineers, designers, artists and social scientists. Contact us on hello@plasticwastehub.org.uk.
This briefing was developed with the Policy Impact Unit. Find out more at www.ucl.ac.uk/steapp/PIU or email us on: PolicyImpactUnit@ucl.ac.uk
References and further reading
[i] LGA Response to Consultation on Consistency in Household and Business Recycling in England, July 2021. Available from https://www.local.gov.uk/parliament/briefings-and-responses/lga-response-consultation-consistency-recycling
[ii] Defra Statistics on waste managed by local authorities in England in 2020/21 (p.12). Available from
[iii] Environment Act 2021. Available from https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2021/30/contents/enacted
[iv] Allison, A.L., Lorencatto, F., Michie, S. and Miodownik, M., 2022. Barriers and enablers to food waste recycling: a mixed methods study amongst UK citizens. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(5), p.2729.
The Big Compost Experiment, available at www.bigcompostexperiment.org.uk
Allison, A.L., Lorencatto, F., Michie, S. and Miodownik, M., 2021. Barriers and enablers to buying biodegradable and compostable plastic packaging. Sustainability, 13(3), p.1463.
[v] WRAP, Household Food Waste Collection Guidance, 2021 https://wrap.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/HH%20food%20waste%20guide%20section%204%202021%20final_0.pdf
