Driving the waste prevention agenda: an evaluation of weighing kerbside household waste arisings methodology, in Dorset, UK

Mike Read, Marten Gregory, Paul S Phillips

Research output: Contribution to ConferencePaper

Abstract

Household waste prevention in England has been recognised in national strategy as a key component for future sustainable practice. To support the policy agenda, the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in England has funded an extensive programme of fundamental research in the area. Previous attempts to assess the impacts of waste prevention initiatives have faced a number of problems. These have generally centred on difficulty in separating the effects of initiatives from external factors and inadequate sample sizes or methodology. The specific research aim reported on here, in this Defra funded project, was to trial and assess methods for monitoring and evaluating approaches detailed in the National Resource and Waste Forum (NRWF)’s Household Waste Prevention Toolkit. The primary objective of this research was to quantify the direct waste tonnage impacts of implementing a targeted household waste campaign in Dorset. The key performance indicator chosen for this assessment was the weight of waste collected at the kerbside from households. The results are informative and will help future teams design campaigns on the basis of rigorous methodology. It was found that there are a wide range of factors that need to be taken into account and that had hitherto been given little prominence, such as careful matching of pilot and control areas. Analysis of the results leads to the conclusion that waste arisings for residual waste has decreased in the pilot area (≈ 10.5%) more than the controls (e.g. ≈ 5.5%). This method for monitoring can be used, in the hands of an expert project team, to communicate to the public the direct benefits of waste prevention.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2010
EventThe 21st LRN Annual Conference and PhD Workshop 2016 - Cambridge Veterinary School, United Kingdom
Duration: 7 Sept 20169 Sept 2016
https://ciltuk.org.uk/About-Us/Professional-Sectors-Forums/Forums/Logistics-Research-Network/LRN-2016 (The 2016 Conference theme focused on work involving ethical issues in relation to supply chain management and logistics operations. The Conference demonstrated the current, promising research work within the theme in terms of its trends, challenges, and opportunities, so as to discover and explore new research directions for the research community and the practitioners. The Seed Corn research fund, assisted in this research quest, by supporting small scale research projects in universities. The research fund is set up to provide a small research grant on a ‘seed corn’ basis to enable supply chain, logistics and transport researchers in the UK and Ireland to explore issues of current and academic interest.)

Conference

ConferenceThe 21st LRN Annual Conference and PhD Workshop 2016
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
Period7/09/169/09/16
OtherThe 2016 Conference theme focused on work involving ethical issues in relation to supply chain management and logistics operations. The Conference demonstrated the current, promising research work within the theme in terms of its trends, challenges, and opportunities, so as to discover and explore new research directions for the research community and the practitioners.

The Seed Corn research fund, assisted in this research quest, by supporting small scale research projects in universities. The research fund is set up to provide a small research grant on a ‘seed corn’ basis to enable supply chain, logistics and transport researchers in the UK and Ireland to explore issues of current and academic interest.
Internet address
  • https://ciltuk.org.uk/About-Us/Professional-Sectors-Forums/Forums/Logistics-Research-Network/LRN-2016 (The 2016 Conference theme focused on work involving ethical issues in relation to supply chain management and logistics operations. The Conference demonstrated the current, promising research work within the theme in terms of its trends, challenges, and opportunities, so as to discover and explore new research directions for the research community and the practitioners. The Seed Corn research fund, assisted in this research quest, by supporting small scale research projects in universities. The research fund is set up to provide a small research grant on a ‘seed corn’ basis to enable supply chain, logistics and transport researchers in the UK and Ireland to explore issues of current and academic interest.)

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