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Featured Event: Can nudge tactics reduce rural littering?

Geoff Lyons

3 min read

Soft drinks company Lucozade Ribena Suntory and environmental campaign charity Hubbub are using behavioural science to help clean up Britain's forests 


WHO 

Soft drinks company Lucozade Ribena Suntory and environmental campaign charity Hubbub. 

WHAT 
A reception in the House of Commons to launch the ‘Love Your Forest Impact Report,’ the culmination of a three-year, behaviour change focussed, campaign to tackle rural littering. 

WHY 
Littering is a problem everywhere, but it’s particularly troublesome in rural areas where it can remain unseen for years. Litter that’s over 35 years old has been found in the ancient woodlands of the Forest of Dean, even though over 250 tonnes of litter is removed from the forest each year at a cost of £430,000 to local taxpayers. That’s why local employer Lucozade Ribena Suntory decided to team up with Hubbub to launch Love Your Forest, a three-year campaign using nudge tactics to tackle rural  littering.

HOW 
It’s all about incentives. Love Your Forest used clever ways to both raise awareness and deter littering. The ‘CON-venience store’ – the UK’s first litter shop – contained litter from the forest floor and highlighted how litter can stick around for decades. The ‘Trashconverter’, a van that toured the Forest of Dean throughout the summers of 2017 and 2018, invited people to swap their trash for treats. ‘Communitrees’ – wacky faces made from litter by local children and affixed to trees – were set up on the back of research revealing that if people feel like they’re being watched, they’re less likely to commit anti-social behaviour.

In the end, these efforts were as successful as they were unconventional. In an online questionnaire, 96% of respondents agreed the campaign raised awareness on the issue of littering. And the Communitrees? They worked. Littering around installations dropped by up to 30%. 

WHAT THEY SAID 

“We want the UK to become one of the most resource efficient countries in the world... We need to shift our economy away from the kind of classic take-make-dispose model to one where we maximize the resources that we use.” - Chris Preston, Deputy Director Waste and Recycling, DEFRA

“The government is absolutely right to seek to improve our waste and recycling infrastructure and to introduce a national anti-littering campaign, which is being launched later this month…Collaboration is key. Government, industry, and consumers work best when they work together.” - Michelle Norman, External Affairs and Sustainability Director, Lucozade Ribena Suntory 

“People from the Forest of Dean really love their forest and rightfully so. We knew that any campaign messaging needed to have this feeling of pride at the heart of it.” - Jack Hodgkiss, Love Your Forest Project Co-ordinator, Hubbub 

“Hubbub is an innovative organisation that do things in a slightly different way, so it’s always very interesting to see their work.” - Mark Pawsey MP, Chairman of the All- Party Parliamentary Group for Packaging

 

Lucozade Ribena Suntory have announced another year of funding for the Love Your Forest campaign. To learn more about Love Your Forest, visit hubbub.org.uk/love-your-forest 

 

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