Drive Down Litter | 2019 Impact Report | Hubbub

DRIVE DOWN LITTER Impact report 2019

Testing new approaches to roadside litter

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Approach

Highways England has estimated that it costs around £6m a year to collect litter from motorways, with more than 150,000 sacks of refuse collected annually.

An average of 83 bags of litter are collected from each mile of motorway every year.

Hubbub followed its four step behaviour change campaign approach in the development of Drive Down Litter. These steps were: 1. Obtain baseline data to understand the drivers of current behaviour and the scale of the challenge.

Hubbub UK’s Drive Down Litter campaign was an eight-month social experiment testing new ways to tackle littering in two Kent service stations, using proven behaviour change and awareness raising techniques.

2. Create a strong core brand and a series of behaviour change interventions.

3. Implement the selected interventions to assess impact.

Aims of the project

4. Produce an evaluation report to demonstrate impact and create an inspiration guide to enable others to replicate successful elements.

Drive Down Litter explored whether creating a coalition of organisations united behind a concerted campaign to cut littering could have an impact. It was hoped that lessons would be helpful in developing a national strategy to tackle littering on UK motorways.

The interventions were: Communications and engagement • Art installation to raise awareness.

• Community gallery featuring photos of staff.

• Messaging: posters, vinyls, table talkers, banners.

The campaign sought to test a variety of methods to reduce littering informed by insights and data gatherings at the selected sites.

The project has “massively decreased the work load on the perimeter roadways as more customers seem to be using the bins. I think all the facilities team are in agreement it has streamlined the way we work making it more efficient but also slowing down the amount of litter on the perimeter road as there are now bins more readily available.”

The Partnership

Infrastructure • Roadside bins designed to allow both car and HGV drivers to bin rubbish without leaving their vehicle.

• Recycle reward machines to encourage customers to recycle.

The campaign was initiated by the Kent Resource Partnership who identified motorway littering as a significant problem that needed addressing in the county.

The Partnership asked Hubbub to create a campaign and to secure a collaborative group of companies to help fund and develop activities to tackle roadside littering.

Hubbub found the creation of this coalition challenging.

Unlike our other campaigns there seemed less appetite for businesses to get involved, accountability was hard to pin down and Highways England didn’t provide the leadership that was anticipated.

Roadchef Site Manager

This difficulty in building the partnership meant that Hubbub had to scale back on the level of activity and ambition. However, we were eventually able to create a small group of influential backers including The Kent Resources Partnership, Highways England, Roadchef, Shell and Costa Express.

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The Results • • • • •

However, for the Drive Down Litter campaign to be of value, Highways England needs to take a leadership role in the development and implementation of a national strategy.

There was a 60% drop in littering on the onslip roads at Maidstone after the interventions were installed.

88% of staff at Maidstone and 80% staff at Folkestone believed the campaign had an impact on littering.

Two recycle reward machines collected over 7,000 items for recycling (coffee cups and plastic bottles).

Recycle reward machine voucher redemption rate 1.6%.

The Roadside bins were deemed the most effective intervention.

Without Highways England’s leadership it is incredibly difficult to unite the many different stakeholders involved in our motorway network behind a coherent campaign that would raise public awareness and change antilittering behaviour.

If a national campaign was developed, the experience of Drive Down Litter suggests that the installation of playful and colourful bins for HGV and car drivers could have a significant impact, particularly if they are backed with well developed awareness raising campaigns promoting effective behaviour change.

The recycle reward machines suggest that a Deposit Return Scheme campaign may be effective in collecting high quality materials for recycling with limited contamination. Although up-take of coupons was very low, Hubbub believes that this was because the public weren’t at the right point in their ‘customer journey’ to take benefit from the coupons. This would be different if they were part of a wider national strategy.

The data from the slip roads indicates that the campaign was very effective at reducing littering in these areas, however securing robust data from the sites proved challenging. Securing robust data proved exceptionally challenging. Highways England were unable to provide the agreed data for littering on the slip roads from the service and petrol stations due to operational difficulties with the contractor. The Maidstone Service station underwent a major refurbishment within the campaign which impacted the validity of data.

In any national campaign, robust plans need to be put in place to measure impact data. These plans need to recognize the significant operational difficulties in collecting data from motorways and would require the full involvement and engagement of all relevant stakeholders.

Recycle reward machines for coffee cups and plastic bottles were installed at Maidstone; the first time such machines have been installed in a service station in the UK. The machines recycled over 7,000 coffee cups and plastic bottles. Findings suggest that the people used the machines because they wanted to ‘do the right thing’ rather than to get a reward. Redemption rates on the vouchers was 1.6%.

Recommendations for service stations wanting to cut littering

At both sites new bins were introduced and were deemed by participating companies to have been a success. These large, colourful collection bins make it easier for both car and HGV drivers to dispose of their litter. 89% of staff at Maidstone and 100% of staff at Folkestone identified the bins as being the most effective intervention for reducing litter on site.

Qualitative data suggests that the branding, messaging and communication strategy were effective. Employee and visitor pride in the area has increased as a result of the campaign. The campaign was widely recognised by the public at both sites and has personally influenced staff at both locations.

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We recommend that service stations invest in roadside bins for both HGV and car drivers, supported by strong messaging on the approach to the bins.

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We recommend that service stations invest in well designed recycling bins inside the services stations, ensuring that general bins and recycling bins are always placed together with clear, consistent signage.

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We recommend that any service station that wants to tackle littering should engage their staff both in the message of cutting littering, and in the actual roll out of the interventions.

Next steps Hubbub is delighted that Road Chef has decided to extend the campaign to their Sandbach and Strensham Service Stations and we have made available all our collateral and materials to enable this to happen.

Given the operational challenges that Hubbub faced delivering the campaign and our perception that there was little desire from Highways England to create an impactful national campaign we have decided that we won’t continue working in this area. We believe our resources are better directed elsewhere, although we hope the insights in this report will prove useful to anyone interested in tackling roadside littering and we will provide any interested parties with the resources, materials and support to help them deliver campaigns in the future.

Key learnings and recommendations The Drive Down Litter campaign has provided some indications of the type of interventions that could successfully reduce littering across the UK motorway network. These findings could prove valuable in the creation of a national anti-littering strategy on our motorways.

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C O N T E N T S PA G E Introduction..................................................................................................................................... 9 Baseline data................................................................................................................................. 12 Campaign design...........................................................................................................................14 The interventions........................................................................................................................... 16 Evaluation and impact.................................................................................................................. 22 Conclusion and recommendations..............................................................................................33 Next steps ..................................................................................................................................... 36

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1. INTRODUCTION Hubbub UK’s Drive Down Litter campaign was an eightmonth social experiment which tested new ways to tackle motorway littering in Kent, using current best practice on behaviour change and awareness raising approaches from around the world. The impact was independently measured

by King’s College London and is being shared openly to give a fresh angle to national litter campaigns.

Drive Down Litter ran from June 2018 to February 2019 and aimed to reduce littering in two service stations in Kent.

Roadchef Maidstone Services Junction 11 on the M20 and Shell petrol forecourt at Stop 24 Services in Folkestone Junction 8, M20.

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1.1

THE LITTER ISSUE IN KENT

Kent has some of the busiest motorways from the Port of Dover to London and the rest of UK. As a result, the M20 suffers from high volumes of roadside litter.

Maidstone and Folkestone are important because of their proximity to the port and have been highlighted as litter hotspots in the South East. A total of 9,116 bags of litter per year are collected in the Area 4 network (Kent and Sussex). Around 90% of this is from Kent, meaning approximately 8,200 bags were collected in the area last year. In 2013, the Highways Agency (now Highways England) reported over 22,000 road impact incidents in England caused by objects falling from vehicles.

Highways England has estimated that it costs around £6m a year to collect litter from motorways, with more than 150,000 sacks of refuse collected annually.

An average of 83 bags of litter are collected from each mile of motorway every year, the cost of litter picking equating to £40 per bag.

1 . 3 T H E PA R T N E R S H I P A N D F U N D I N G MODEL The campaign was initiated by the Kent Resource Partnership who identified motorway littering as a significant problem that needed addressing in the county.

The Partnership asked Hubbub to create a campaign and to secure a collaborative group of companies to help fund and develop activities.

This difficulty in building the partnership meant that Hubbub had to scale back on the level of activity and ambition. However, we were eventually able to create a small group of influential backers including The Kent Resources Partnership, Highways England, Road, Shell and Costa Express.

The funding model was based on one that Hubbub has successfully created for previous campaigns. The aim was to bring together a coalition of key stakeholders who would all contribute financially to a campaign that would be independently branded and created by Hubbub in consultation with the funders.

The coalition model was complicated by the fact that Highways England out-sourced their involvement in the project to their agency called Aecom. This built further complexity making it difficult to directly engage with one of the key stakeholders.

Hubbub found the creation of this coalition difficult.

Unlike our other campaigns there seemed less appetite from businesses to get involved, accountability was hard to pin down and Highways England didn’t provide the leadership that was anticipated.

The campaign was centred on the M20 at a large petrol station at Folkestone and the service station at Maidstone. Kent is a gateway to the United Kingdom for many visitors and the Kent Resources Partnership is determined that drivers see a country that is not litterstrewn. The Folkestone and Maidstone stations are two busy transport hubs near the channel coast and were identified as being valid locations for the creation of the trial.

1.4 HUBBUB’S APPROACH In the creation of Drive Down Litter, Hubbub sought to:

1.2 AIMS OF THE PROJECT Drive Down Litter explored whether creating a coalition of organisations united behind a concerted campaign to cut littering could have an impact. It was hoped that lessons would be helpful in developing a national strategy fighting littering on UK’s motorways.

The campaign sought to test a variety of methods to reduce littering informed by insights and data gatherings at the selected sites.

Find fresh ways of communicating the problem, being positive, sociable, collaborative and open to all.

Co-design innovative and original solutions.

Act as a ‘convenor’, bringing organisations together.

Amplify impact nationally through media, social media and by influencing policy.

A four-step delivery model was followed: 1. Obtain baseline data to understand the drivers of current behaviour and the scale of the challenge.

2. Create a strong core brand and a series of behaviour change interventions.

3. Implement the selected interventions to assess impact.

4. Produce an evaluation report to demonstrate impact and create an inspiration guide to enable others to replicate successful elements.

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2 . B A S E L I N E D ATA

2.1 MAIDSTONE Overall, 343 people were observed and 4,783 pieces of litter were mapped during 27 hours of monitoring.

Key findings:

On 6th and 7th June 2018 a group of researchers carried out baseline data collection. The data collected included two exercises:

Securing robust data to accurately measure the impact of the project proved exceptionally challenging. Highways England were unable to provide the agreed data for littering on the slip roads from the service and petrol stations due to operational difficulties with the contractor.

The Maidstone Service station underwent a major refurbishment within the campaign which impacted the validity of data. Within these restrictions, Kings College London measured the levels of littering at both sites.

1. Observations of how people dispose of their waste items.

2. Counting all the littered items found within defined site.

Ideally Hubbub would have obtained more baseline data on both sites but were unable to do so due to budgetary constraints. Operational difficulties prevented Highway England’s contractor from providing data on the amount of litter on the motorway slip roads from the Maidstone service station which further limited the evidence base for the project.

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Of the 343 people observed, 71% binned their waste and 29% littered.

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Despite the presence of many bins in the rest area, 71% of those observed littering were within 5 meters of a bin.

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British nationals were slightly more likely to litter than those from mainland Europe.

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Half of the people observed smoking littered their cigarettes.

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21% of those observed littering engaged in ‘tidy littering’ where they either placed their litter next to a bin, or left it on a table.

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Aside from cigarettes, some of the most littered items were sweet wrappers and condiment packets (for instance sugar, salt, pepper, ketchup, brown sauce sachets).

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A surprising number of cotton bud sticks were found littered in the test site. The source or purpose of these is unknown and unclear.

2.2 FOLKESTONE 1,009 items of litter were counted on the test site.

Very few people were observed disposing of their waste, therefore an analysis of the behavioural data has not produced significant results.

There was a relatively low percentage of cigarette waste (52%) found at the station. This is likely because smoking at petrol stations is a behaviour that is generally avoided. Other littered items found in the area were food packaging; chewing gum and sweet wrappers, as well as high counts of cotton buds and plastic zip ties.

The state of litter at the Shell station was generally good, with only a few obvious hot spot areas to intervene.

In addition to the baseline data, Hubbub also carried our analysis of the typical customer journey. This sought to ascertain where would be the most appropriate placement for messaging, where to put bins and what operational challenges might exist.

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3 . C A M PA I G N D E S I G N

In consultation with the funders Hubbub developed a strong core brand for the campaign called #DriveDownLitter. The bold colouring, strong icons and simple messaging were based on the success of previous Hubbub campaigns including the anti-littering Neat Streets and the Square Mile Challenge coffee cup recycling initiative.

Hubbub’s design team analysed a typical customer journey for people using the two sites and used this to identify points when messaging, nudges and new infrastructure could be implemented to cut littering.

These ideas were presented to the site managers and adapted in order to meet their operational and safety needs.

The interventions were developed building on the insight phase, the customer journey and operational requirements.

This process revealed that: •

Bins need to be accessible on both sides of the road to accommodate the large number of vehicles from abroad.

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New bins needed to be installed specifically for HGV drivers enabling them to bin rubbish without leaving their cabs.

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New bins should be installed near retail outlets for till receipts and other small items.

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It would be worth testing recycle reward machines for both coffee cups and plastic bottles.

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Messaging was required in outdoor seating areas.

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Targeted messaging was needed for cigarette smokers.

8,200 bags of litter

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4. THE INTERVENTIONS

4.2 COMMUNITY GALLERY POSTERS A poster campaign inside and outside the site shops featured images of staff holding hand-written, personalised signs with messages about keeping the area clean. The posters aimed to instill a sense of pride in the area and discourage littering behaviour.

The posters sought to create a sense of inclusion and shared ownership of space. This sense of community has been effective in other campaigns such as Australia’s ‘Do The Right Thing’ and the ‘Don’t Mess with Texas’ campaign in the US.

Hubbub worked with a range of bin manufacturers, designers, artists and site managers to create the messaging and interventions used during campaign.

4.1 AWARENESS RAISING To raise awareness of the scale of the litter problem, an art installation was created for Maidstone services. This was a forest of flowers and a hedgehog made out of litter created by artist Michelle Reader which included facts about litter in Kent. Education and awareness raising was used to draw attention to the scale of the problem in Kent and motivate service station users to change their behaviour.

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4.3 MESSAGING Other types of messaging were trialled in both site shops including vinyl stickers, table toppers, banners, posters all encouraging visitors to bin their litter or recycle it in the reward machines. This messaging drew on the Garden of England and people’s sense of pride in Kent to discourage littering, for example “save the garden of England from becoming the land of litter”.

The entrance and exit road signs encouraged collective responsibility with messages such as “Nice to see you.

Please help us create a litter free zone”.

We had hoped to use floor vinyls to nudge people to bin their litter in carparks and petrol forecourts reinforced by posters and messaging on petrol pumps. Permission restrictions meant that this was not feasible.

4.4 ROADSIDE BINS Thirteen new bright bins were installed at the Maidstone Roadchef.

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Nine of these were Target Bins: designed for roadside binning of litter by pedestrians and cars, these were located within the car park area immediately outside the entrance to the Roadchef.

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Four were RoadHog Bins: designed to make it easier for lorry drivers to bin their rubbish without leaving their cab, these were located on exit roads from the test site.

Five news bins were installed at the Shell forecourt at Stop 24 Folkestone Services. Three of these were target bins and two HGV bins.

These bins were brightly coloured in order to ensure they were visible, especially for those driving. ‘Bin ahead’ signs were placed leading up to the HGV bins at Maidstone so that lorry drivers knew they would be able to dispose of rubbish easily.

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4.5 RECYCLE REWARD MACHINES Two recycle reward machines were trialled in Maidstone. These machines were installed to issue a reward to customers for recycling their coffee cups and plastic bottles. This was the first time that these machines have been trialled in a service station in the UK. Incentives have been used widely as an effective behaviour change technique across the world, and we wanted to find out if this would work in a service station setting.

4.6 INCENTIVES We had hoped to provide direct incentives to HGV drivers based on the successful “Keep Your Cab Fab�. We planned to include bumper stickers, reusable litter bags and air fresheners. Due to financial constraints this intervention did not go ahead.

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5 . E V A L U AT I O N A N D I M PA C T

5 . 3 E V I D E N C E F R O M O N S L I P R O A D D ATA AOne+ (Highways England’s cleansing service providers) weighed litter collected on the adjacent on-slip roads at Maidstone on the M20 Junction 8, before and after the campaign. A total of three litter picks were required involving a thorough cleanse of the two on-slips at Junction 8 of the M20 (see figure 1 below).

Figure 1. Map to show on-slips at Junction 8 of M20 We faced several challenges with data collection on quantities of litter, and we advise that these data sets be treated with caution. The qualitative data is much more reliable and gives a good indication of the impact of the campaign on both staff and customers.

5.1 METHODOLOGY Data was collected in a number of ways: •

Litter counts were conducted every month, including a baseline litter count which took place in June 2018.

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Litter counts were conducted of the adjacent on-slip roads at Maidstone services.

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Monitoring of recycle reward machines at Maidstone services by Roadchef, Unisan and Hubbub.

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On the ground surveys with both staff and general public.

Table1. On-slip road data

5.2 EVIDENCE FROM LITTER COUNTS Comparing the baseline litter counts with the campaign litter counts suggests that there has been a 33% reduction in litter present on the ground at Maidstone and an increase in litter of 9% at Folkestone. These findings should be treated with caution due to data limitations mentioned in the baseline data section.

Two factors behind the increase of litter at Folkestone could be: •

The site is open making it easy for litter to be blown onto it from the adjacent Shell Channel Gateway site.

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The baseline litter picks were carried out in June when there was a lot of foliage hiding much of the litter. The final litter picks were carried out in the winter months where a lack of vegetation may have exposed existing litter not previously visible.

M20 Junction 8

Initial Eastbound

Number of 13+ other bags debris

Before intervention

Post intervention

Westbound

Total

Eastbound

Westbound

Total

Eastbound

Westbound

Total

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7

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Key Finding The evidence suggests a 60% drop in littering on the slip roads after the campaign. This is highly significant, both in terms of reduced environmental impact, time and costs saved on litter picking .

The weight of litter on the on-slip roads surrounding Maidstone services was measured before intervention and after intervention. There was a decrease in the number of bags collected at the end of the intervention phase and subsequently a significant decrease in weight of litter. These measurements show a decrease in weight of litter of 28.15kg or 60% post intervention from 47kg to 18.5 kg.

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5.4 LOCAL PERCEPTION SURVEYS Key finding Qualitative data suggests that the branding, messaging and communication strategy were effective at raising awareness.

Employee and visitor pride in the area has increased as a result of the campaign. The campaign was widely recognised by the public at both sites and has personally influenced staff at both locations.

Maidstone Surveys in Maidstone of 50 people showed that 42% of people surveyed had heard or seen something about how to recycle drinks and food packaging when at the service station. These figures were positive given that most are infrequent visitors. The most recognized campaign items were posters (80.9%) the recycling reward machines (28.57%), target bins (12.5%) and further messaging around the service station (6.25%).

Figure 3. Motivations for binning rubbish at Maidstone services

At Maidstone the closeness of a bin was easily the biggest motivator for binning litter (see figure 3 opposite).

Folkestone Surveys at Folkestone services of 50 people showed that 54% of people surveyed had heard or seen something about how to recycle drinks and food packaging when you are out and about.

Figure 4. Motivations for binning rubbish at Folkestone Services

The most recognized campaign items were posters (55%), vinyl stickers in the shop (50%), target bins (16.67%) and HGV bins (11.11%).

At Folkestone the closeness of a bin was also the biggest motivator for binning litter (see figure 4 opposite).

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5 . 5 S TA F F P E R C E P T I O N S U R V E Y S Key finding Surveys at both sites indicated a high level of awareness and engagement from staff, with many staff reporting their own behaviour and attitudes had been influenced by the campaign, and that the campaign had had an impact on littering on the site.

Maidstone Staff interviews revealed a high level of awareness of the campaign with most agreeing that the new bins were being used regularly. Two interviewees highlighted that they had been approached by regular customers with positive feedback about the campaign. 88% of staff believed the campaign to have had an impact with the Target Bins being viewed as the most effective (see figure 5 below).

Figure 5. Most effective interventions at Maidstone

The bins have “massively decreased the work load on the perimeter roadways as more customers seem to be using the bins. I think all the facilities team are in agreement it has massively streamlined the way we work making it more efficient but also slowing down the amount of litter on the perimeter road as there are now bins available more readily available. I believe with the bins on the exit roads more rubbish has either been captured or it has centralised the litter at least around the bin where customers have missed it but still making it easier for the facilities team to pick it.”

- Roadchef Site Manager The bins “work really well and the team love them as not only are they easy to use and capture more litter from cars/ HGVs than before, they are also waterproof which means they don’t fill with water like open top bins and make it easier to empty”.

-Roadchef staff “I used to litter myself and now I really want to keep the area clean and reduce litter.”

- Roadchef staff

63% of staff at Maidstone found the campaign influenced them personally making them more aware of the impact of littering. Some respondents suggested that further action could be taken through the installation of more bins, more stringent issuing of fines or through better product design. All staff felt that the campaign should be implemented at other Roadchef locations.

Folkestone In terms of litter perception 80% of Shell staff believed the campaign to have had an impact in reducing litter on site.

80% of staff at Folkestone thought customers were using the target bins effectively and 60% of staff thought customers were using the HGV bins effectively. Staff at Folkestone agreed that target bins (60%) and HGV bins (40%) were the most effective interventions installed on site (see figure 6 below). At both sites staff have noted on numerous occasions that bins have been used much more frequently than ever before.

Figure 6. Most effective interventions at Folkestone

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5.6 RECYCLE REWARD MACHINES Key finding

there is a strong willingness amongst customers to recycle more, without an incentive, as long the recycle bins are highly visible and clearly signed.

The recycle reward machines proved effective at capturing a high volume of items to be recycled with low contamination rate, but there was a very low rate of redemption of the vouchers. Customer surveys also indicated that the financial reward was not a strong motivator for many of them. The cost of the machines, and maintenance needs also mean that a recycle reward machine may not be the most effective way to increase recycling at a service station, unless a part of a national Deposit Reward Scheme that allowed people to redeem vouchers at multiple locations.

Recycle reward machine surveys Results from 50 surveys conducted when the vouchers were 5p:

Impact of the recycle reward machines Two recycle reward machines were installed at Maidstone services in June 2018, one recycling coffee cups and one plastic bottles. Motorists could claim money off their snacks and drinks by putting empty plastic bottles and coffee cups in the machines.

The machines issue a 10p (was 5p prior to November 2018) money-off voucher for each item deposited, to be redeemed against a purchase at Costa or WHSmith. The machines have recycled over 7,000 items to date. No recycling was in place at Maidstone prior to this trial, so we can assume that this would have otherwise gone to landfill. Many people bought their coffee and headed back to their cars which reduced usage of the machine as it didn’t fit with the customer journey.

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62.22% did not notice the machines and 37.78% did.

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94% of people knew what the machines were used for.

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82.22% said they would have redeemed the coupon had they used the machine.

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86.67% of people who did not use the machine said they would in the future.

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46.67 % would have used a recycling bin had it been available.

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100% of people who used the machine would use it again.

According to surveys conducted when the vouchers were 10p and in a more central location: •

25% of those who used the machines did so for the reward and 75% for the novelty.

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Comparisons with other trials of recycle reward machines indicate that the machines collected a higher-thanexpected volume.

100% of items recycled were purchased from the service station – 75% of which was purchased from Costa and 25% from WHSmiths.

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100% of those surveyed said they would redeem their coupon.

Coca Cola’s similar trial recycled 26,373 plastic bottles over two months with 14 machines. If they had two machines they would have recycled on average 1,883 in a month compared to an average of 951 a month at Maidstone, which is substantial considering the higher footfall at the Merlin Theme Park.

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75% of those surveyed were happy with the 10p.

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100% of those surveyed said they would use the machines again.

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100% of those surveyed would use a recycling bin had it been available.

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62.5% of those surveyed who did not use the machines did not see them.

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Reasons for not using the machine were no time (40%) didn’t see it (45%), other bins were available (5%), not interested (5%), the machines looked full (2.5%) and laziness (2.5%).

Surprisingly there have only been 93 voucher redemptions totalling at a cost of £6.85 to Roadchef. Despite, the voucher increase from 5p to 10p in November 2018 and a total of 7,612 plastic bottles and coffee cups having been recycled, only 93 or 1.2% of the vouchers given to customers to spend at Costa or WHSmith in Maidstone services were redeemed.

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On observation a lot of children use the machines during holiday periods as a novelty so the vouchers could be getting lost there. A large number of service stations users are also from the EU so it’s unlikely that they would redeem a voucher in the future, considering the expiry date is within a month. The high volume of items collected and the low rate of redemption of vouchers indicates that

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Additional comments on recycle reward machines

“They should have more of them and the screen should be bigger.”

“Loved the idea.”

“There are enough recycle bins around.

A reward machine is good.”

“It’s a great idea.”

“I don’t think the reward makes much of a difference to most people.”

“Great to have a discount and help the environment.”

“I think a recycling bin is more appealing to people.”

“It’s a good idea, good for the environment.

Yes, I would use the machines again.”

Of those surveyed who didn’t use the machine 75% thought it was for recycling or litter reduction, 15% thought the machine was a vending machine and 10% didn’t know what the machines were for.

“The machines very efficient and saves money.”

Of those surveyed who didn’t use the machine 77.5% would redeem the coupon if they had used the machine and 22.5% wouldn’t have.

“It’s a good idea to help tackle the problem.”

Contamination of the items has been very low, with coffee cup lids and sleeves being the biggest cause for concern. To prevent this, a bin has been installed to collect liquids, lids and sleeves from coffee cups, and this has helped to greatly reduce contamination.

“ The machines really got my attention.”

“More than 5p back would be good.”

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5 . 7 N AT I O N A L A W A R E N E S S The Drive Down Litter project has been hugely successful in attracting people’s attention, promoting debate, and generating media coverage around the issue of litter.

Nationally the campaign secured:

41 broadcast features

12 mentions in press media

4 in trade press

This secured a total reach of 41 million. Coverage included The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent.

The campaign launch also featured on ITV 1 Meridian South East, BBC South East, BBC Radio Kent and many others.

Please see the full coverage report here.

The Drive Down Litter pages on Hubbub’s website have secured over 1000 page views with an average of 3 minutes spent on each page.

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Twitter reach of 614, 849 with 438 tweets and 175 contributors.

Facebook reach of 4, 856.

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Hubbub vlog “Can rewards for recycling prevent roadside litter?” has had 18, 314 views and 41 comments.

6. CONCLUSION AND R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S The Drive Down Litter campaign has provided some indications of the type of interventions that could successfully reduce littering across the UK motorway network. These findings could prove valuable in the creation of a national anti-littering strategy on our motorways.

However, for the Drive Down Litter campaign to be of value, Highways England needs to take a leadership role in the development and implementation of a national strategy.

Without Highways England’s leadership it is incredibly difficult to unite the many different stakeholders involved in our motorway network behind a coherent campaign that would raise public awareness and change anti-littering behavior.

If a national campaign was developed, the experience of Drive Down Litter suggests that the installation of playful and colourful bins for HGV and car drivers could have a significant impact, particularly if they are backed with well developed awareness raising campaigns promoting effective behaviour change.

The recycle reward machines suggest that a Deposit Return Scheme campaign may be effective in collecting high quality materials for recycling with limited contamination. Although up-take of coupons was very low, Hubbub believes that this was because the public weren’t at the right point in their ‘customer journey’ to take benefit of the coupons. This would be different if they were part of a wider national strategy.

In any national campaign, robust plans need to be put in place to measure impact data. These plans need to recognize the significant operational difficulties in collecting data from motorways and would require the full involvement and engagement of all relevant stakeholders.

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R E C O M M E N D AT I O N S F O R R E D U C I N G L I T T E R AT S E R V I C E S TAT I O N S

LEARNINGS FROM RUNNING THE TRIAL Should anyone wish to run a similar trial to build on the findings of the Drive Down Litter campaign, here are our top recommendations to make it effective.

1) Ensure there is staff capacity Make sure the sites have the resources and desire to assist with such a campaign. The site managers at both sites did not have the capacity to prioritise the campaign, because of other commitments and the scale of construction that was ongoing at Maidstone. Both site managers have moved on since the start of the project, making communication and analysis difficult.

2) Provide support for staff to collect data We recommend that an incentive be provided to site managers and staff to record data accurately and regularly.

Staff would benefit from training or additional support to assist with data collection and measurement.

3) Choose a business as usual site Choose sites that aren’t undergoing renovations or other major events to allow a fair assessment of the impacts on litter.

1) Roadside bins for HGV and car drivers work

isolation. Whilst the machines did collect a large amount of recyclate with low contamination rate, the vouchers were rarely redeemed. The cost of the machines, and maintenance needs also mean that a recycle reward machine may not be the most effective way to increase recycling at a service station, unless a part of a national Deposit Reward Scheme that allowed people to redeem vouchers at multiple locations.

The evidence suggests that the installation of playful and colourful bins for HGV and car drivers could have a significant impact, particularly if they are backed by well developed awareness raising campaigns promoting effective behavior change. These large, colourful collection bins make it easier for both car and HGV drivers to dispose of their litter and should be rolled out to other service station sites across the UK. 89% of staff at Maidstone and 100% of staff at Folkestone identified the bins as being the most effective intervention for reducing litter on site.

4) Employ a local delivery partner We recommend working with a local delivery partner to collect data and manage the project. Both sites were located some distance from partner organisations, which created a number of operational difficulties.

In the absence of a national strategy, well designed and located recycling bins would be a more effective solution. The location of the bins is very important, with bin proximity being the top motivator for people binning rubbish correctly.

We recommend that service stations invest in well designed recycling bins inside the services stations, ensuring that general bins and recycling bins are always placed together with clear, consistent signage.

Staff at both sites have suggested that further action could be taken through the installation of more bins, more stringent issuing of fines or through changes to product design. At Folkestone, an additional bin should be installed for the lorry drivers on the opposite side of the existing one, as right hand side drivers don’t currently have a bin in their side.

3) The campaign had a big impact on both staff behaviour and attitudes

We recommend that service stations invest in roadside bins for both HGV and car drivers, supported by strong messaging on the approach to the bins.

The campaign has shown to vastly influence staff behaviour towards litter and increase employee and thus visitor pride in Kent. The majority of staff at both locations felt that the campaign had influenced them personally and they felt that litter had decreased on site as a result of the campaign. Staff are crucial to the development and implementation of campaigns.

2) Customers are willing to recycle, given well placed, and well designed bins Investing in recycling bins (which were not present at either site before the trial) would be likely to be effective at increasing recycling on site. All those surveyed said they would use a recycling bin had it been available.

Conversely, service stations are not the most appropriate location for recycle rewards machines operating in

We recommend that any service station that wants to tackle littering should engage their staff both in the message of cutting littering, and in the actual roll out of the interventions.

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7. FUTURE PLANS

Hubbub is delighted that Roadchef has extended the campaign to their Sandbach and Strensham Service Stations. We have made available all our collateral and materials to support this.

Given the operational challenges that Hubbub faced delivering the campaign and our perception that there was little desire from Highways England to create an impactful national campaign we have decided that we won’t continue working in this area. We believe our resources are better directed elsewhere, although we hope the insights in this report will prove useful to anyone interested in tackling roadside littering and we will provide any interested parties with the resources, materials and support to help them deliver campaigns in the future.

With thanks to everyone we worked with:

Kent Resource Partnership

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