Litter and flytipping offences - enforcement review: final report

Appendix 7 – The impact and effectiveness of campaigns on behaviour change

As explored in this report, litter and flytipping is largely a behavioural issue. However, if individual actions are responsible for the rise of litter and flytipping, then an individual’s actions are also the way to prevent the increase in these problems continuing.

Ultimately, what needs to happen to ensure that littering and flytipping stops is a change in behaviour. Below are two different campaigns, each of which encourage citizens to address their behaviours and make positive choices with their waste^[218]. Campaigns should bring together several strategies to appeal to citizen. They should be informative and cover several media (depending on the audience) including the press, social networks and internet.

Zero Waste Scotland: Scotland is Stunning – Lets Keep it That Way Campaign^[219]

Zero Waste Scotland established the ‘Scotland is Stunning – Let’s Keep it That Way’ campaign to address an increase in littering and flytipping after COVID-19 pandemic restrictions eased.

The positive messaging used (‘Scotland is Stunning’) reinforces the idea of the beauty of the area and this type of language instils pride and appreciation of the natural environment. Throughout the campaign also repeated use of the word ‘our’ to impart the idea of collective responsibility of our public spaces. Alongside this, spectacular photos of Scottish scenery such as beaches or mountains were used to emphasise Scotland’s beauty.

This kind of messaging will resonate with certain people’s self-esteem contingencies (the things that make us feel good); if a person cares about nature and the beauty of Scotland, then not littering will appeal to this ideology and taking care of their surroundings will give them a sense of satisfaction. However, while Scotland is indeed beautiful, not all of Scotland looks like the above picture, hence the campaign created a toolkit for stakeholders to tweak the messaging and imagery to their local area. The message superimposed on scenery which reflects the individual’s local area is more likely to make them respect the beauty of where they are and subsequently dispose of their waste responsibly.

Organisations, communities, political parties, and transport and tourism bodies all reported seeing a decrease in the amount of litter during the campaign. A post-campaign survey of partners confirmed that the campaign succeeded in reminding Scots of their beautiful environment and encouraging them to take better care of it.

Hubbub Foundation: Ballot Bins^[220]

Ballot boxes or bins where the bin displays a question with two answers, giving smokers a vote by putting their cigarette butt in the slot under their preferred answer, break the unconscious habit of littering. The simple act of making a person think about what they are going to do with their waste (e.g., by offering a vote e.g., weather this month? Miserable or terrible?) offers an alternative to simply dropping it on the pavement and establishes the idea that what we do with our waste has consequences.

In Edinburgh and London, these boxes were trialled and gained a lot of attention in the local community. This campaign did not associate waste inextricably with litter and harmful impacts. Instead, it encouraged positive behaviour by asking a simple question.

This campaign also raised awareness of our personal relation to litter. 90% of business owners and workers in the area were aware of the boxes and the results became popular on social media. This positively reinforces the action of disposing of your waste responsibly.

During the campaign, cigarette butt littering (one of the most common types in Scotland) saw a reduction of around 8%^[221]. At one point, it even dipped by 18%. The ballot bins also collected 29% of the street’s correctly disposed of waste^[222].

The results of this campaign were far-reaching and substantial. A total of 80 enquires were received, all asking to use the ballot boxes in other areas. Discarding cigarette butts is often an unconscious behaviour; people mindlessly drop them as they walk, sit in the car, or stand conversing. The issue with unconscious decisions is that people are not aware they are making them, so they can be hard to change. That’s why campaigns which make people notice and address the waste in their hand, such as this, are a success.