TWO YEAR FOOD WASTE RECYCLING PROJECT
Acknowledgements
The Regional Waste Management Planning Offices (RWMPOs) would like to express sincere gratitude to the Department of the Environment, Communications and Climate Action (DECC) for their generous funding and support of the National Food Waste Recycling Project. Their commitment to the development of communication tools in establishing better food waste recycling in homes and businesses has been instrumental in the success of our work.
We also extend our appreciation to the project team members and collaborators whose dedication and expertise have contributed significantly to achieving the projects objectives.
Thank you for your continued support and partnership.
Disclaimer:
Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the material contained in this publication, complete accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The RWMPOs, the author(s) and the working group members do not accept any responsibility whatsoever for loss or damage occasioned or claimed to have been occasioned, in part or in full, as a consequence of any person acting, or refraining from acting, as a result of a matter contained in this publication.
Cumann Lucht Bainistíochta Contae agus Cathrach County and City Management Association
PROJECT RATIONALE
The two year national Food Waste Recycling Project came about as a result of a large body of work that originally began in 2013 with a small pilot in Sligo Town on raising awareness of brown bins. The projects that preceded the funding and direction of the two Year Food Waste Recycling Project are described in the Executive Summary.
KEY DELIVERABLES
The Key deliverables for this DECC funded project were:
• The procurement & distribution of approximately 150,000 household Food Waste Recycling packs over a two-year period commencing Q2 2022;
• The establishment of a national, annual “Food Waste Recycling Week” commencing May 30th, 2022, with a series of community engagements and awareness raising activities including but not limited to a social media campaign, press release & ministerial launch, media engagements with relevant high profile brand ambassadors, distribution of packs, podcasts and information sharing;
• MyWaste attendance at two national flagship events in 2022 and 2023 (Bloom and Ploughing championships) to include the distribution of Food Waste Recycling packs and awareness raising;
• Distribution of Food Waste Recycling Packs & awareness raising via 31 local authorities through attendance at events, community engagement and through CA sites and/or public buildings;
• Engaging with waste industry (collectors) to identify 3 city and 3 county town routes which will be serviced with a “blanket drop” of Food Waste Recycling Packs.
Each of these key deliverables has been achieved and this report provides additional detail on each of the project areas as described above.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY & BACKGROUND TO THE PROJECT
BROWN BIN USAGE
Background
The first study into attitudes and behaviours around brown bin usage was conducted in 2013 in Sligo Town. Although this project and report received widespread coverage and stakeholder interest in the findings it didn’t translate into further projects at that time.
In the intervening years the three regional waste management planning offices (RWMPOs) were established (Connacht Ulster, Eastern Midlands and Southern) and in 2015 these offices made Regional Waste Management Plans 2015-2021).
At the heart of these plans was collaboration, communication, awareness raising and behavioural change. In the first years of these plans the RWMPOs were integral to the delivery of national, regional and local awareness raising activities many of which were funded by the Department of Environment, Communications and Climate Action (DECC). Projects such as Recycling List Ireland and the Recycling Ambassador Programme put more emphasis on assisting citizens with educational tools and awareness raising to deliver behavioural change particularly peer to peer learning.
Waste Characterisation
The EPA periodically conducts waste characterisation studies of domestic and commercial waste, one of which was conducted in 2017 and it published its findings the following year. In household waste bins the study found:
16% of the contents of the general waste bin was food & garden waste.
2% of the contents of the recycling bin was food & garden waste.
For householders with a “brown bin/food waste service 16% of the contents were not right –plastic, paper, cardboard, beverage containers textiles & metals were all found in this waste stream.
Ireland’s Household Waste
LEGISLATIVE IMPETUS
Running in parallel to the issues of contamination and misuse of bins are the EU recycling targets and the mandatory separation of food and bio-waste.
The following legislative issues were key drivers to the initiation of this project:
PACKAGING WASTE
• Recycling of packaging waste must reach 60% by 2025 and 70% by 2030. Recycling targets for plastic packaging are 50% by 2025 and 55% by 2030 – paper and cardboard contaminated by food waste cannot be recycled;
• Waste Framework Directive – mandatory separate collection of food & bio-waste for all householders from January 2024.
In 2018 the Department convened a working group to look at standardising awareness and education about brown bin usage. Working group members included the Department, RWMPOs, IWMA members and Cre. This working group considered:
• Best practice in other EU member states;
• The key behavioural drivers to reduce contamination;
• The motivators to increase participation in food waste separation.
The working group secured department funding to develop a household food waste toolkit to encourage the correct separation of food waste including communications and the provision of “Kitchen Caddy Packs”.
This project started in 2019 and was completed in 2021 – it took longer than anticipated but delays were unavoidable initially due to Covid 19 restrictions. Once restrictions were lifted citizen concern about unfamiliar interactions or handling items from unknown sources were still apparent so it was considered prudent not to rush into rolling out caddy packs too quickly in case they were not used. With time, concerns eased and “blanket drops” of caddy packs were conducted in these areas:
• Trim, Co. Meath in conjunction with Meath County Council, Thornton’s Waste Disposal & Panda Waste;
• Ballaghaderreen, Co. Roscommon in conjunction with Roscommon County Council and Barna Waste;
• Borrisoleigh, Co. Tipperary in conjunction with Tipperary County Council and Pride Point trading as Ryan Brothers;
• Buncrana Co. Donegal in conjunction with Donegal County Council and Logan Waste.
The key outcomes of the trials were:
• Widespread positive acceptance by participants of the tools provided;
• Households with a food waste bin already further increased their participation;
• Collectors in Trim reported an increase in tonnage of food waste presented during the pilot project of between 20 and 25%.
• Contamination in Ballaghaderreen decreased by over 56% (8.5 % to 4.5%) and presentation rates of the food waste bin increased by 20%.
• In Buncrana, 598 households were provided only with a sticker on the residual bin (see below) and it was determined that this increased participation and tonnage of food waste collected;
• The shared intention that the IWMA, DCCAE, Cré, and the WMPLA are to review this report to determine if the findings could be emulated to all households.
One of the projects Call to Action
The national working group continued to meet after these initial trials were completed and the group proposed the following recommendations:
1. Every new customer signing up to a waste collection service is provided with a kitchen caddy, a starter pack of liners and an information toolkit (Standardised Kitchen Caddy Pack);
2. The information toolkit is revised and distributed to all existing customers eligible for a separate food waste collection;
3. Industry to consider supplying liners at cost price to customers. This recommendation could, if implemented, lead to less contamination from the use of plastic shopping bags as liners;
4. Where possible waste collectors continue to incentivise customers to segregate food waste;
5. Recommend that every waste collector be assisted by the My Waste Team to develop a communications campaign to engage with householders on why and how to separate food waste effectively. Communications with customers are recommended on a weekly basis. This would include emails, text alerts and letters;
The Working Group assisted DECC to progress grant criteria for the food waste recycling trials which secured a fund of €1million for the RWMPOs to deliver a National Food Waste Recycling Project.
Key deliverables for this Project include the following:
• The distribution of approximately 150,000 Food Waste Recycling packs over a twoyear period commencing Q2 2022.
• The establishment of an annual “Food Waste Recycling Week” commencing May 30th, 2022, with a series of community engagements and awareness raising activities including but not limited to a social media campaign, press release & ministerial launch, media engagements with relevant high profile brand ambassadors, distribution of packs, podcasts and information sharing
• MyWaste attendance at two national flagship events in 2022 and 2023 (Bloom and Ploughing championships) this will include the distribution of Food Waste Recycling packs and awareness raising
• Distribution of Food Waste Recycling Packs & awareness raising via 31 local authorities through attendance at events, community engagement and through CA sites and/or public buildings
• Engaging with waste industry (collectors) to identify 3 city and 3 county town routes which will be serviced with a “blanket drop” of Food Waste Recycling Packs.
The next section of this report will explain in detail what was achieved for each of the five key deliverables described above.
KEY DELIVERABLE NUMBER 1
The distribution of approximately 150,000 Food Waste Recycling packs over a two-year period commencing Quarter Two 2022
As detailed previously, a large focus of the pilot work before the two year food waste recycling project began was to design the communication elements of the campaign including the kitchen caddy pack. All stakeholders played a role in trialling different elements of the caddy pack and providing feedback, including:
• Determining the make-up of the pack –including caddy size, lid, handle, embossing, colour etc.;
• The starter pack of liners – the first trial used paper liners to test the public’s view of these and to improve understanding of why compostable liners will reduce plastic contamination;
• Understand the best methodology for cost efficient pack distribution;
• Develop communications to support the sustained use of the pack as a positive tool to enhance the sustained separation of food waste.
After many trials the final kitchen caddy pack specification is:
• A solid 7 litre brown caddy fitted with a lid & handle – manufactured from 100% recycled plastic & embossed with food recycling messaging;
• A starter pack of 20 certified compostable sacks with a 12litre capacity to line the caddy;
• The approved MyWaste information leaflet –printed on 100% recycled paper.
FOOD WASTE RECYCLING
The RWMPOs conducted a competitive tendering exercise in June 2022 for the provision of 150,000 caddy packs in three lots. The tender was awarded to Midland Environmental Services (MES). However due to increased costs for recycled plastics and supply chain issues, the unit caddy pack price was higher than during the pilot phase, so the contract issued was for the supply of 120,000 units. A detailed plan was put in place to ensure the logistics for caddy pack distribution would run smoothly throughout the course of the two year contract. Strict contract management was necessary to ensure smooth distribution of 120,000 kitchen caddy packs to locations and organisations nationwide sometimes at short notice. All aspects of the contract were delivered to the satisfaction of RWMPOs.
Caddy Pack Distribution
LA /WC Pallet of 500 Caddy Packs LA REGION
LA 3 Mayo CUR
Collector 5 WC SR
Collector 7 WC CUR
Collector 2 WC SR
LA 3 Galway CoCo CUR
LA 2 DLR EMR
LA 3 Westmeath EMR
LA 2 Donegal CUR
LA 1 Clare SR
LA 2 DCC EMR
LA 1 Roscommon CUR
LA 5 Limerick SR
LA 2 Fingal EMR
LA 3 Fingal EMR
LA 2 Kildare EMR
LA 2 Kilkenny SR
LA 2 Laois EMR
LA 1 Galway city CUR
LA 1 Clare SR
LA 1 Cork CoCo SR
LA 2 Wicklow EMR
LA 2 Wexford SR
LA 1 Wexford SR
LA 1 Wexford SR
LA 1 Wexford SR
LA 1 offaly EMR
LA 1 Monaghan CUR
LA 2 Tipperary SR
LA 1 Cork CoCo SR
Collector 8 WC SR
Collector 4 WC EMR
Collector 12 WC EMR
Collector 7 WC EMR
Collector 1 WC SR
LA 1 Kerry SR
RWMO 1 SR SR
LA 2 Cork CoCo SR
LA /WC Pallet of 500 Caddy Packs
CRE 1 Cre EMR LA 1 Waterford SR Collector 6 WC EMR LA 2 Donegal CUR Collector 2 WC CUR Collector 2 WC CUR Collector 2 WC CUR Collector 2 WC CUR Collector 3 WC CUR
Collector 1 WC SR LA 2 Wexford SR LA 1 Cork CoCo SR LA 1 Galway city CUR LA 3 Limerick SR LA 1 Carlow SR LA 2 Cavan CUR LA 1 Roscommon CUR LA 2 Galway CoCo CUR LA 2 Cork City SR
2 Tipperary SR
2 Kilkenny SR
2 Waterford SR
2 Mayo CUR
2 Tipperary SR
2 Kildare EMR
1 Offaly EMR
2 DLR EMR LA 2 Fingal EMR LA 1 South Dublin EMR LA 2 Dublin City Council EMR
RWMO 20.5 EMR EMR
RWMO 15.5 CUR CUR
RWMO 14 SR SR
RWMO 30 Ploughing 22 All IWMA 6 Bloom 23 All
The caddy is embossed with a simple set of instructions to remind the user of what can and cannot be placed in the food waste bin. The leaflet provides additional information on food waste separation and signposts to the national MyWaste platform.
Agreement was achieved with the waste industry that all collectors supplying caddy pack would replicate the project specification so that there was consistency in both products and communications.
KEY DELIVERABLE NUMBER 2
The establishment of an annual “Food Waste Recycling Week”
The details in the grant agreement further specified: Commencing May 30th, 2022, with a series of community engagements and awareness raising activities including but not limited to a social media campaign, press release & ministerial launch, media engagements with relevant high profile brand ambassadors, distribution of packs, podcasts and information sharing.
National Food Waste Recycling Week (NFWRW) has been successfully delivered for three consecutive years commencing in 2022. The purpose of hosting a week of activities is to capitalise on the promotion and awareness raising of multiple events and activities over a short space of time. A week of activities and awareness raising provides an opportunity to showcase at national, regional and local level the different activities that contribute to general awareness raising about why it’s important to separate food waste.
Over the course of a week there is also enough time to focus on particular activities such as food waste separation demonstrations.
The success of NFWRW can be summarised as follows:
• Using the media to mainstream the activity of separating & recycling food waste;
• Connecting messages about food waste recycling e.g. discussing the opportunities for developing Ireland’s bio-economy through food waste separation effectively creating green products such as electricity and compost & green jobs created in the waste industry sector;
• Framing the action of food waste recycling as a positive contribution to climate protection;
• Using multiple stakeholders to utilise the creative assets in order to attain wider coverage of the topic
• Using “Ambassadors” to harness attention (more details in following pages);
• Creating citizen engagement opportunities through events including food waste separation demos, caddy pack distribution events and compost giveaways.
12,000 8,000 2,000
The role of Ambassadors in NFWRW: Central to our communications strategy a key part of communicating on food waste recycling has been to harness the voice of relevant influential people to help widen the reach of the project. All three iterations of NFWRW have coincided with the Bord Bia Garden & Lifestyle Festival “Bloom in the Park” which attracts media attention alongside visitor attendance of approximately 100,000 annually. (See National Flagship Events page 25)
For year 1 of NFWRW 2022 we chose three Ambassadors active in the areas of gardening, ecology and commercial food to help us deliver our communications on food waste recycling:
Marie Staunton: After a successful modelling career Marie now teaches gardening classes and has gained national recognition in presenting gardening segments on TV and radio. Marie is an advocate for local produce, healthy soils and supporting Irish growers.
NFWRW 2022 Ambassadors
Conor Spacey is the Culinary Director of FoodSpace Ireland, which operates outlets nationwide. Conor’s focus is on providing providing a sustainable food system that involves seasonal Irish ingredients, working directly with farmers across the country and implementing a zero waste policy that also reduces the carbon footprint of culinary operations.
Anja Murray: Anja Murray is an ecologist, environmental policy analyst and broadcaster. She is familiar to many as a presenter on 'Eco Eye' where she explores the challenges facing the natural environment in Ireland though the perspective of what can be done to effect positive solutions.
For Year two of NFWRW we continued to use Ambassadors to develop our reach and to positively promote food waste recycling as a positive climate action. In year two we again engaged Marie Staunton alongside Fionnuala Moran: an Irish broadcaster, sustainability influencer & DJ, who’s ethos is “leading by doing” in the sustainable living space.
Mary Coughlan: Participated at the sustainability stage on day three of Bloom to promote Ireland’s bio economy and the role this plays in achieving climate targets and growing “green jobs”.
NFWRW 2023 Ambassadors
The role of all stakeholders has also been central in the delivery success of the three iterations of National Food Waste Recycling Week. In particular the local authorities embraced the concept and hosted events including food waste separation demonstrations, caddy pack distribution, compost giveaways and information sharing.
The waste industry also embraced National Food Waste Recycling Week in a similar way to local authorities, sometimes working alongside them at caddy pack & compost giveaways, promoting the tips and tricks to food waste separation on their websites and social media accounts.
Engaging the media:
One of the greatest successes of National Food Waste Recycling Week was the capturing of media attention about food waste and its importance to Ireland’s success at achieving recycling targets and contributing positively to climate action.
The RWMPOs successfully achieved local, regional and national coverage for National Food Waste Recycling Week, the activities that were planned and happening throughout the week and knowledge sharing around food waste separation.
KEY DELIVERABLE NUMBER 3
MyWaste attendance at two national flagship events in 2022 and 2023 (Bloom & Ploughing Championships) this will include the distribution of Food Waste Recycling packs and awareness raising
National event participation presents an opportunity to bring a campaign to the widest possible audience, capture valuable insights from the public at large and engage and interact on the topic. Additionally such events allow for additional media engagement.
The MyWaste team, as requested attended Bloom in 2022 and 2023 and the National Ploughing Championships 2022.
Bloom:
National Food Waste Recycling Week has coincided with Bloom each year which presented an opportunity to bring the campaign to a very large audience.
Bloom 2022 was perfectly timed at the start of this food waste recycling project and our year one attendance focused on communicating food waste separation and distributing caddy packs. As one of the first large scale post covid events, it captured the attention of the media and our food waste recycling project was referenced in this coverage.
To ensure our presence at Bloom stood out we engaged three Ambassadors to work with us: Chef Conor Spacey an advocate for preventing food waste, Ecologist & TV presenter Anya Murray and Celebrity Gardener Marie Staunton (as above)10,000 caddy packs were distributed over three days and the MyWaste stand was one of the busiest at Bloom. Attendance at Bloom 2022 was 113,000.
View Video
We returned to Bloom in June 2023 with a fresh approach. At this stage the local authorities and waste collectors were most active in caddy pack distribution, instead of replicating their efforts we took on an educational role at the Bloom sustainability stage. We gave talks and provided expert advice on food waste separation. We
engaged with the audience on the tips &tricks and positive actions for the climate on food waste prevention and separation to promote sustainability and circular living. Again, we used Marie Staunton, celebrity gardener to work alongside MyWaste team members at Bloom.
National Ploughing Championships:
In 2022 we attended the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska Co Laois. The Ploughing Championships is a three day event that attracts over 100,000 visitors every year and information stands, particularly those distributing free resources like caddy packs are inevitably very busy. Our stand was located at the exit to the Government of Ireland village, attracting some of the highest footfall of the event.
To assist the RWMPOs with citizen engagement at the Ploughing we engaged local ladies GAA club (Ratheniska, who are part of the Green Clubs initiative) to help us communicate our food waste separation messages and distribute caddy packs. 15,000 caddy packs were distributed over three days. Attendance at the Ploughing Championships that year was 277,000
Distribution of Food Waste Recycling
Packs & awareness raising via 31 local authorities through attendance at events, community engagement and through CA sites and/or public buildings
Local authorities are trusted sources of information and environmental awareness raising at local level is well established through the network of Environmental Awareness Officers (EAOs).
The RWMPOs communicate regularly with the EAO network but when organising specific events or campaigns we also host special national briefings for the EAOs and other interested colleagues. We found this worked very well for food waste recycling as it allowed us to outline the targets for each year of the campaign, the resources available for EAOs and the opportunities for local authorities to get involved.
The success and reach of National Food Waste Recycling Week could not have been achieved without the support of the local government sector.
Local authorities distributed 56,000 caddy packs over the lifetime of the project.
In total over the two year project 120,000 caddy packs were distributed.
Donegal:
About mid-way through the project Donegal County Council approached the RWMPOs and proposed additional collaboration. The Council had enacted a large programme of work to tackle non-compliance with brown bin rollout. Additional collaboration was thought to be helpful in two ways:
• Decreasing resistance from householders in accepting/using the brown bin;
• More consistent participation from the collection industry in providing the service
To facilitate this the following actions were taken:
Assistance to Donegal County Council: 2000 caddy packs for events
Assistance with media interaction
Assistance with communication tools
Assistance to Donegal based Collectors: 6,000 caddy packs
Engaging with waste industry (collectors) to identify 3 city and 3 county town routes which will be serviced with a “blanket drop” of Food Waste Recycling Packs
This key deliverable was also achieved but the interaction with the waste industry was more extensive than the six locations. Similar to the interaction with local authorities, the approach from the outset of this project was one of cooperation and collaboration.
Before we approached any collector individually we first;
• Analysed the annual returns to the National Waste Collection Permit Office (NWCPO) to pinpoint the locations that were underserviced with brown bins – to prioritise these areas;
• We hosted an online briefing for IWMA members to explain the purpose of the project, how we wanted to collaborate, what resources would be available & what waste collectors were expected to do in return.
Over the course of the project we collaborated with 12 collectors and a total of 35,000 caddy packs were distributed by collectors:
ACHIEVEMENTS, INSIGHTS AND KEY LEARNINGS
The RWMPOs achieved all aspects of the project and successfully collaborated with both the local government sector and the waste industry to bring awareness to food waste separation nationwide.
Overall the project achieved what it set out to do. The communications alongside the provision of caddy packs are showing very positive results including:
• 69% of households with a collection service have a brown bin
• 72% of households with the service are using their brown bin and separating all food waste
We believe that the behavioural change achieved by this project can largely be attributed to the unique emphasis this project placed on communications. In particular:
• The standardised caddy pack – distributed at national events, through local authority and waste collector distribution. We know from extensive citizen feedback that the caddy alone works as a visual reminder to source segregate. The practice of using liners helps to sustain the practice of food waste separation by removing the “yuck” factor. The caddy also helps with reducing contamination – because the action becomes about food waste separation, it is more mindfully carried out by the householder;
• Standardising the communications: This proved critical to the success of the project. The communications developed over the project began with a simple instructional leaflet in the caddy pack and expanded to encompass instructional videos, social media posts, animations, tips & tricks, standardised press adverts, press releases and podcast material.
• Using Ambassadors & others to enhance communications and deliver results: The use of a broad variety of “different voices” to communicate the project, foster understanding and set guidelines to encourage behavioural change was also uniquely delivered over the two years. Nationally the role of “Ambassadors” was explored in a previous section and their profiles helped us reach a wider audience encompassing gardening, food and sustainable lifestyles. This was mirrored locally with many local authorities engaging actively with more local actors to deliver awareness raising and behavioural change.
• Designing New Educational Tools: As part of the project, we designed and delivered new exhibition material to local authorities through the RWMPOs. These included polycarbonate exhibition boxes to show how to separate food waste properly and prevent contamination. These units were a great “talking point” at events, nationally, regionally and locally and are still in use beyond the food waste project as they were adaptable beyond the food waste project.
Key Insights from the two year project:
Participation in this project has been overwhelmingly positive and it has set a marker for future similar projects. The project’s success hinged on:
• Ensuring all stakeholders were in receipt of resources – this took considerable effort and planning as resources were distributed nationwide to both waste collectors and local authorities. At peak times such as NFWRW making sure the delivery of caddy packs, communication tools and the placing of advertising which was all managed by the RWMPOs took considerable effort;
• The project provided unique collaborative opportunities for hosting events; for example, local authorities & waste collectors hosting demonstrations on food waste separation, distributing caddy packs alongside free compost giveaways to show the link between food waste separation & compost production. In some areas local academic institutes became very involved n awareness raising & hosting events.
• Communication was also at the heart of this project and the widespread use of the standardised communication toolkit by all stakeholders was impressive. This success may be attributed to the co-design of communication tools leading to widespread acceptance by all stakeholders.
• The timing of legislative change was also a key contributor to its success - both the Waste Framework Directive (mandatory separate collection of food & bio-waste) for all householders from January 2024 and the Enhanced Commercial Waste Regulations came into force on July 1st, 2023 which mandate all waste collection companies to provide a residual, mixed dry recyclable and bio waste bin to all their commercial customers.
Additional Insights
Behaviours & Attitudes to Food Waste Separation:
Before the introduction of the Waste Framework Directive (mandatory separate collection of food & bio-waste) for all householders from January 2024, the regions conducted a “behavioural & attitudes” survey to understand better what the public think about food waste separation. The results of this research provide a great “state of the nation” insight at the end of the National Food Waste Recycling project. This allows us to enhance our future communications on food waste separation.
