Measuring the Impact of Waste Prevention

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Measuring the Impact of Waste Prevention

• Barbara Leach
• Evaluation Manager

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WRAPs role in waste prevention

• WRAP works in partnership, helping businesses and
  the general public to
• reduce waste,
• use more recycled material, and
• recycle more things more often.
• This helps to minimise landfills, reduce carbon
  emissions and improve our environment.

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Some of our waste prevention work

• Work with retailers/brand owners
• Strategic (e.g. Courtauld commitment)
• Encouraging innovation (e.g. packaging and food
  waste reduction)
• Provision of tools (e.g. best in class data food
  waste estimator)
• Home composting
• Subsidised bins provided to local authority
  partners
• Information resources (e.g. website)
• Home compost advisors
• Training
• Waste minimisation course for local authorities
  21st - 22nd February 2007, Oxford
• Food waste reduction campaign
• Background research

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More waste prevention work

• Construction programme
• E.g. site waste management plans and off-site
  manufacturing
• Recycle Now campaign
• Moving into waste minimisation messages
• Testing brand elasticity
• Work in schools
• Recycler the Rapping Robot
• Real nappies
• Waste Prevention Toolkit
• NRWF document taken on by Rotate
• Soon to be launched on website

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Measuring the impact of waste prevention is very
difficultBUTIts essential that we all do it
so we can demonstrate the value of our work
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WRAPs guidance

• Specific advice on
• Washable nappy schemes
• Unwanted mail
• Schools-based awareness initiatives
• General information on
• Surveys
• Participation and usage monitoring
• Using tonnage data
• Capture rates
• Assessing contamination
• Monitoring communication campaigns

• www.wrap.org.uk/local_authorities/toolkits_good_pr
  actice/monitoring_and_evaluation_guidance/index.h
  tml

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Other useful guidance

• http//epa.gov/wastewise/pubs/wwupda3.pdf
• www.crn.org.uk/projects/myt/contents.shtml

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General approaches

• Before and after
• Need baseline measure
• Assumes that nothing else will have an influence
• Can be expensive
• E.g. Food waste campaign, construction waste
  minimisation
• Convert activities into tonnages avoided
• Requires activities to be monitored
• Normally contains lots of assumptions
• Research may be needed to underpin
• E.g. Home composting, real nappies, food waste
  estimator
• Activity and control
• Needs a suitable control can be very difficult
  or even impossible
• WRAP doesnt use or recommend this approach

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Diversion through home composting

• WRAPs home composting model
• Based on extensive research
• More than a decade in development
• Matched waste composition analysis and survey
  work of more than 6,500 households
• 10 years of consistent survey data
• National survey in 2005 of 20,000 households
• Detailed analysis and modelling
• Currently preparing a summary of all the research
  to be shared with partners
• Inclusion in LATS
• Political will
• Currently consulting on options

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Real nappy savings

• Real nappy tonnage conversion tool
• You enter
• Number of babies converted by age band or
  overall
• Rate of landfill tax and typical landfill gate
  fee
• It has assumptions based on national research
  about
• Typical weight of a soiled disposable nappy
• Number of real nappies used a day by age band of
  child
• What households do with incentive vouchers
• It gives you
• Tonnage of nappy waste saved
• Disposal costs avoided
• www.wrap.org.uk/home_garden_schools_and_communitie
  s/working_with_consumers/real_nappies/tonnage.html
  

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Estimating food waste reduction

• Food waste estimator tool
• Based on
• Defra national food consumption survey data
• Standard data on what proportion of different
  foodstuffs are edible
• Expert judgments about whats wasted
• You feed in
• Assessment of what foodstuffs your activity will
  impact on
• What levels of achievement you might expect
• It then
• Performs a probability calculation that copes
  with the uncertainty
• Provides an estimate of how much food waste might
  be reduced
• Second generation tool expected to be on website
  in April 2007

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Minimising construction waste

• Modelling waste minimisation
• Before and after principle
• Developing complex model
• Difficulties with limited data
• Will feed in our achievements and see what
  difference it has made
• Due for completion April 2007

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Food waste reduction campaign

• Metric showing of committed reducers
• Based on several survey questions
• Baseline and tracking progress
• Combined with data on quantities wasted by
• Committed reducers
• Non-reducers
• By type of consumer (e.g. households with
  children retired households)
• We take the number of newly converted committed
  reducers
• Multiply by difference in quantities wasted
• Estimate of food waste avoided

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Unwanted mail

• Using the mailing preference service
• MPS can provide data on number of residents that
  have registered
• Licence required (approx 150 one-off or 600
  annual)
• By postcode area
• Not time limited totals only
• Converting to tonnage data
• Analyse waste to determine typical quantities of
  MPS and non-MPS
• Representative sample required
• Multiply by number of signatories

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Measuring work in schools

• Awareness/claimed behaviour surveys of students
• Link to national curriculum class projects
• Awareness/claimed behaviour surveys of parents
• Parents complete questionnaire taken home by
  children
• Participation monitoring linked to pledges
• E.g. WasteWatching in Schools (Hyndburn and
  others)
• Quantities of waste recycled at the school
• Council bring bank data if available
• Quantities of waste recycled by the school
• Class projects
• Waste composition analysis linked with targets

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Summing up

• Although measuring waste prevention is difficult
  
• It is possible
• And although it can be expensive
• It is often worthwhile in the long run
• Because you can prove youve made a difference.

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Thank you

• Barbara Leach
• Evaluation Manager
• WRAP
• The Old Academy
• 21 Horsefair
• Banbury OX16 0AH
• 01295 817888
• barbara.leach_at_wrap.org.uk