Zero Waste by Robin Murray, Greenpeace Environmental Trust 2002

housing estates, for example, have unused collective
areas – empty shops or garages that can be used as
mini recycling depots. Parks have space and machinery
suitable for composting. Highways have specialist
vehicles and depots that could be rented for recycling;
• the operating patterns, schedules, capacity utilisation,
breakdowns, distance to disposal and maintenance
arrangements;
• the costs and income not just of the waste
departments, but of all sections of the authority
producing waste (one study in a London borough
found that the per tonne cost of waste management on
estates was nearly ten times that for ordinary domestic
refuse rounds). Authority-wide costing will be the base
marker or bottom line against which the costs of any
new waste system have to be judged.
6. Social marketing
Earlier I discussed the central place of environmental
values in the design and operation of successful recycling
schemes. However, no service of this kind can succeed on
ethics alone. The experience of both environmental and
ethical trading is that the qualities normally expected of a
service or commodity are the primary issue. Ethical
market research shows that there are a small minority
(often no more than 1%) who will buy recycled paper or
fairly traded coffee whatever the quality. A further 30%
are actively sympathetic to the ideas in question, and may
even be willing to pay a little more (say an extra 10%) if
the item in question is equivalent to conventional goods in
quality. Another 40% will buy if both price and quality
match the competition. A residual cohort remain
indifferent or are even hostile. These proportions can
change over time but the principle of an ethical ‘bell
curve’ still holds.
Recycling has learnt similar lessons. For most people, the
environmental value of the service is not enough if the
service is irregular or inconvenient. To achieve high levels
of participation recyclers have had to ensure that, in
addition to the focus on ‘meaning’, they also offer a high
quality service and employ the skills and social marketing
techniques required. If recycling is in competition with the
dustbin, then it has to be organised in a way that
maximises its advantages and minimises its drawbacks.
Among the points of importance are the following:
• simplicity. The highest participation rates come from a
weekly service, preferably on the same day as a
residual collection;
• convenience. Recycling boxes and organic containers
need to be designed to take account first and foremost
of householder convenience, with vertical boxes for
flats for example, or small ‘compostainers’ for
collecting organics in the sink;
• design. Good services require good design – of
equipment, containers, workwear, and leaflets;
• advice. If householders are producers, then some
aspects of recycling require advice. In the case of
composting, the best schemes have employed compost
doctors to help establish a compost bin, and to
troubleshoot for those with problems; for recycling the
collector can usually advise on materials that should
be left out or included;
• tracking. Bar codes on recycling boxes have allowed
collectors to monitor participation rates, with thanks
to those who participate regularly, and direct
approaches to those who don’t;
• feedback. Regular feedback on the quantities of
material collected and its use has been found to
increase participation rates. This can be done through
a newsletter left in the recycling box (boxes are now
available with message slots so that they become a
weekly vehicle for communication);
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