Recoup has been awarded £105,000 of funding from Innovate UK for a project to research the link between plastic recycling communications campaigns and behaviour change.
The project will research the link between communications campaigns and recycling in Kent
Recoup has brought together eight other groups as part of the ‘Pledge2Recycle project’, which will take place in Kent.
Those involved are the Kent Resource Partnership, Veolia, Viridor, Ocado, Ecosurety, British Plastics Federation, Plastics Europe and PPS Recovery Systems.
Pledge2Recycle
The Pledge2Recycle Plastics project will connect with the 673,000 households across Kent over a 12-month period, to gain insights, deliver plastics recycling messages and evaluate the resulting tonnage and contamination data.
The project is described as “the first of its kind” to both deliver and measure the impact recycling communications campaigns have on behaviour change over an extended period.
It is expected that the insights collected will provide evidence to support future plastics recycling engagement strategies.
‘Fantastic opportunity’
Anne Hitch, head of citizen and stakeholder strategy at RECOUP and Pledge2Recycle Plastics project lead, commented: “This project represents a fantastic opportunity for the plastics industry opportunity to better understand better how we can reach 2025 recycling targets. The citizens of Kent have an opportunity to help formulate future policy and provide the UK with a blueprint demonstrating the links between plastics recycling communications and behaviour change.”
‘Engage’
Cllr Nick Kenton, chairman of the Kent Resource Partnership added: “The 13 Kent councils are very pleased to be working alongside RECOUP and other partners to deliver this Kent-wide plastics recycling campaign. The aim of this project is to engage with Kent residents to understand if there is any confusion when it comes to plastics recycling and how we can encourage citizens to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics. We look forward to seeing which interventions help with the quality and quantity of plastic recycling here in Kent.”
The British Plastics Federations said it is ‘proud’ to be part of the project, while Viridor said it will aim to show residents that their efforts to separate and retain recycling “really does make a difference”.
Veolia added that the project should provide “great insight” into influencing behaviour change.
The post Government funding for recycling comms research appeared first on letsrecycle.com.
Source: letsrecycle.com Plastic
