NEAT STREETS BCP 2021 Impact Report
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How drone tech and a disco bin reduced litter by 75%
In a nutshell Hubbub worked with tech company Ellipsis Earth, BCP Council and McDonald’s to trial a pioneering approach to litter prevention. Hubbub’s creative behaviour change interventions were informed by incredibly detailed and accurate data on litter patterns captured by drones leading to an average 75% reduction of litter in surrounding areas. This is the story of how we did it and what we plan to do next.
Why do we need to tackle litter? An estimated 2 million pieces of litter are dropped every day in the UK. That’s 1,388 pieces a minute, or about 7,000 in the time it takes you to read this report. This is bad news not just for our natural environment and habitats, but also for taxpayers who foot the £1bn a year bill, communities who suffer the social impacts of litter, and also companies whose branded litter negatively affects consumer perceptions.
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Though very well intended, traditional litter surveying methods are costly, time consuming and prone to human interpretation and error, making them challenging to scale and draw robust scientific conclusions from.
The problem of measuring litter The sheer scale, variety and pervasiveness of litter has always made it incredibly hard to accurately measure. And what you can’t measure, is hard to manage. Until now…
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Why Bournemouth? The stunning 15 miles of Dorset coastline from Poole to Christchurch attracts millions of visitors each summer, generating a tourism industry worth over £590 million a year. With the economic prosperity though, comes the problem of litter. While litter is unsightly, unsafe and uneconomical anywhere, it’s particularly damaging for the environment in Bournemouth due to the town’s erosional beaches that wash the litter straight into the sea,
where it can ultimately end up as far from home as Venezuela. Local services were stretched to breaking point when lockdown eased in the summer of 2020. Over a million people descended on Bournemouth coastline across a three-day period, leaving behind an estimated 40 tonnes of rubbish on beaches alone, and generating headlines like this:
‘Tonnes’ of rubbish left behind on Bournemouth beach by sunseekers on the hottest day of the year The Health Secretary warned beaches will be closed if people ignore social distancing.
Something had to be done... So, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council enlisted the help of Hubbub and tech company Ellipsis Earth to test an innovative, data-driven approach to tackling litter thanks to funding from McDonald’s, and some of their suppliers; Britvic, Seda and Huhtamaki.
Heat maps like this detailed up to 47 kinds of litter from plastic bags to cigarette butts, including branded litter.
What we did Hubbub worked with Ellipsis Earth who used cutting edge drone and machine learning technology to create the most scientifically robust litter map ever seen in the UK by measuring litter patterns across 18 sites (475,000 SqM) in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. Armed with this ground-breaking level of insight, Hubbub created bespoke interventions to target littering behaviours. 5
Over the summer of 2021 we tested a suite of interventions, including: including Ballot Bins Our Queen’s Award-winning voting ashtrays targeted cigarette butt litter hotspots with topical questions, e.g., Is football coming home?. You can order your own Ballot Bins here: https://ballotbin.co.uk/
Glow in the dark bins These innovative bins reminded night-time revellers on the beaches where to bring their rubbish with cheeky messages.
The world’s first ‘Disco Bin’ What better way to put an end to rubbish parties than with a bin that lights up and plays cheesy music when used. See it in action. 6
Improved bin signage: We raised awareness of what happens when we ‘tidy litter’ (clue: wind and seagulls happen) with eye-catching new bin signage.
A Catch of the day stall: A spoof fishmongers stall ran at weekends to educate people about the impact litter has on our oceans in a fun way.
Enhanced litter picking Local stakeholders used the data to finesse their litter picking routes. A local McDonald’s store told us: “we’re collecting more litter in less time”.
Targeted digital campaign We educated key audiences about littering behaviours with bespoke content including a video with a local parkour artist. 7
The impact Ellipsis Earth conducted a final litter mapping survey at the end of August to measure the impact of Hubbub’s interventions relative to pre-intervention data. The findings of this independent scientific measurement were striking:
For Ellipsis Earth’s full scientific report go to: https://www.ellipsis.earth/bcp
Where Hubbub interventions were positioned according to Ellipsis Earth data, litter reduced by 75% on average in surrounding areas with some areas seeing up to a 90% reduction.
Bonus insight Alongside Hubbub’s playful interventions and messaging, a parallel campaign which Hubbub was not involved with, told people to ‘Sort **It Out’. Interestingly, Ellipsis Earth’s independent measurement found that areas in close vicinity to this messaging actually saw a 10% increase in litter on average. This demonstrates the effectiveness of positive messaging over a finger-wagging approach.
Hubbub’s Ballot Bins not only reduced cigarette litter by 73% on average in key cigarette litter hotspots, but also reduced overall litter in the vicinity by 60%. The Disco Bin led to a 42% reduction in litter in the surrounding area. An A/B test at the comparable East and West sides of Bournemouth Pier revealed a stark difference. The West side had no interventions and saw a 0% reduction in litter. The East side featured colourful bins and glow in the dark messages, generating a 79% reduction in litter.
For more litter insights read our 2020 research report looking at why young men litter: bigboysdontlitter.co.uk 8
Next steps: This initial trial campaign in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole will be the first of many as we build on what we’ve learnt and seek to create a successful template for tackling litter that can be repeated across the UK. Get in touch if you’re interested in working with us or funding a future Neat Streets campaign: hello@hubbub.org.uk
Thanks to McDonald’s and their suppliers Britvic, Seda and Huhtamaki for funding this innovative campaign.
Curious to find out more? www.hubbub.org.uk/neat-streets-bcp hello@hubbub.org.uk