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Innovative ways to get people to do the right bin

Innovative ways to get people to do the right bin

As a global community we are still mired in managing our waste but we are moving, albeit at a glacial pace, towards preventing it.

The two concepts seem like worlds apart, but rubbish management (collecting waste and dealing with it in an ideally eco-friendly way) and rubbish prevention (minimising waste in the first place) can be tackled simultaneously in very nuanced ways.

How do we get that bin laden, when it's right there?

Somewhat bizarrely, bins don’t always work. We know that because people literally litter right in the presence of bins.  When it comes to enticing people to put their rubbish in a bin, some of the most creative minds in the world have been called upon to tackle the task.

Acknowledging littering is often an unconscious act, the most effective campaigns aim to jolt standard behaviours.


Ballot Bins

Ballot Bins was a genius initiative in Edinburgh and London which engaged smokers directly and gave them the chance to vote with their rubbish, namely their cigarette butts. The bins featured populist questions that kept them engaged: Messi or Ronaldo? Begbie or Renton? Batman or Superman? Just pop your litter in the slot to register your vote.


Name and shame strategies

Back in 2015 Hong Kong embraced a good ol’ fashioned public shaming of litterbugs through its Face of Litter campaign.  They literally used DNA from strewn rubbish items to develop likely composites of offending litterbugs. 

While the composites weren’t of actual people, it did get people thinking twice about littering.


Transparent bins

Clear bins leave you nowhere to hide. Like telling everyone on Instagram that you have started a new fitness campaign or going to run a marathon, putting your rubbish on public display is a great motivator to “walk the talk” and follow through on thoughtful disposal.

Ironically, recycle bins tend to intimidate pretty much all of us to the point where some people completely ignore them while others throw any old thing in and hope for the best. Even those who seem to have the general idea, still have some creeping sense that they haven't quite got it quite right. 

Mindarie Regional Council’s Face Your Waste clear bin trial aimed to focus residents on waste minimization and investing a little time in understanding what can go into them. 

Australia's spot fighting campaigns

Australia has been spot-fighting rubbish management battles for half a century.  Since 1969 we’ve had Don’t Litter Australia, Keep Australia Beautiful (which hatched the wonderful Tidy Towns campaign and got even the remotest parts of Australia tidying up) and of course Clean Up Australia Day.

It’s hard to imagine what this country would look like if it wasn’t for these public campaigns, but it would not be pretty. The manpower involved and unrelentless drive of organisers cannot be overstated. 

But we need more than winning battles on annual public awareness days.  We need a full onslaught of real behavioural change to win a war.  And that is why we need to turn our efforts to the next public movement: The War on Waste.





Images: Mindarie Council | Ballot Bins | Oglivy & Mather Hong Kong | Gecko Environment Council
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Sheena Neil
Founder & CEO

What an awesome idea that ballot bin is! I'd love to see those in the Brisbane City. Thursday, 14 March 2019