Recycling Randomised Controlled Trial
Project description
The recycling experiment set out to investigate whether doorstep canvassing is an effective way to encourage kerbside recycling. It was conducted with EMERGE, a not for profit recycling organisation. The research took place in an ethnically diverse and relatively poor inner city neighbourhood in Trafford Metropolitan Borough. Previous research has suggested that a door-to-door canvassing campaign can successfully encourage households to change behaviour and raise their recycling rates, but this has not yet been robustly tested. The aim of this research was to test the effectiveness of a door to door canvassing campaign, using a randomised controlled trial. We began by measuring recycling participation rates for 6580 households who receive the recycling service. We then randomly allocated half the streets to be canvassed, focussing on three factors which influence recycling behaviour: awareness, attitudes and structural barriers. The remaining streets were in a control group and received no special attention. After the intervention we once again measured recycling participation.
Preliminary findings
The results of the experiment show that a door-to-door campaign can raise recycling by 7.7%. Overall, 233 additional households started recycling. Recycling rose most in the poorest, most ethnically diverse parts of the neighbourhood.
Next steps
Three months after the canvassing, we are currently collecting a third round of participation monitoring data, so we can see whether the effect of the canvassing continues over time. We are also evaluating the impact of social demographic factors such as ethnic group, housing type and income.
Outputs
- Link to paper recently accepted by the Journal of Environmental Management
- Link to Policy Briefing
- Link to final report for the project - February 2009
- Link to RCT Conference in York 2008 Paper
Sarah Cotterill, Peter John and Hanhua Liu
The University of Manchester
October 2008
