Media Release

23 March 2015

‘Recycle right’ campaign on the right track

A new campaign to step Aucklanders through a planned transformation of the region’s waste services has made an encouraging start, an evaluation report shows.

A report by independent research company Gravitas Research and Strategy Ltd assessed the impact of Make the Most of Waste – an education and engagement campaign that launched in September with a focus on ‘recycling right’.

The month-long campaign included community engagement through door-to-door visits, and a media campaign using new animated characters. ‘Tin Can’ and ‘Plastic’ featured in digital media, communications material, and online, on a new makethemostofwaste.co.nz website.

The findings show around a quarter of Aucklanders were aware of the campaign, and of those people two in five said they changed their recycling behaviour for the better after seeing it. The data shows positive support for the council’s proactive efforts for environmental outcomes.

Make the Most of Waste will help Aucklanders to transition to new services set out in Auckland Council’s Waste Management and Minimisation Plan (WMMP), including a new regional inorganic service, a new resource recovery network, an urban food waste collection and pay as you throw for rubbish collection across the region.

“Transforming the region’s future waste services is a top priority for Auckland, where the population is set to grow by an estimated one million people by 2040,” says Regional Strategy and Policy Committee Chair Councillor George Wood. “It is important that we re-think the way we manage the region’s rubbish and recycling, as we pursue Auckland’s aspirational goal of zero waste by 2040.

“The research results show that Make the Most of Waste has already begun its job of easing Aucklanders through change, so people see waste minimisation as a natural part of daily life.”

The campaign cost just over $1 per household.

Ends.

Editor’s note:

Recycle Right campaign background:

Aucklanders are good at recycling and divert over 100,000 tonnes from landfill every year, but mixing rubbish with recycling costs ratepayers over $1 million, and rising.

Many wrong items go into recycling, and a lot of perfectly good recyclable materials are going into the rubbish, then on to landfill. The council plans to follow up the campaign to continue to raise awareness about recycling right, so people can make better decisions when separating their household items.

Extensive consultation with the community, the waste and recycling sector and other stakeholders, led to the creation of the communications strategy behind Make the Most of Waste.

In 2011/12, Aucklanders were invited to give their opinions on the draft Waste Management and Minimisation Plan. Most submitters said waste reduction was an important issue. They also agreed there was a need to have a comprehensive communications, community engagement and development programme to help householders adapt to changes in waste and recycling services.

Findings in the evaluation report:

AWARENESS Almost one in four Aucklanders were aware of the campaign. The data as well as qualitative responses showed residents approved of the council being proactive in the environment space. Community engagement amongst the 6000 households visited in targeted areas showed at least 95 per cent gave a positive rating for the WasteWise Advisor team being easy to understand, helpful and knowledgeable.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE Two in five of those who saw the campaign said they had changed their recycling behaviour for the better, and we saw an increase in the number of people who knew that polystyrene meat trays and plastic shopping bags shouldn’t go in recycling.

TARGETED AREAS In areas targeted by a door-to-door campaign, incidents of contamination dropped by more than the targeted 25 per cent during the campaign.

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