Carrots and Sticks

This report by our Environment Committee says schemes which reward or penalise Londoners for recycling rubbish work well at first, but it is unclear whether they will lead to long-term changes in behaviour.

Recycling is essential to reducing overall waste and, in recent years, the capital’s recycling rates have increased significantly, but are stalling. London currently has the lowest rate in the country with just a third of waste being recycled.

The Mayor has set a challenging target for Londoners to recycle at least 45 percent of household waste by 2015, rising to 60 percent by 2031. Unless recycling rates increase or landfill rates fall, the capital could face a bill of £152 million per year for landfill costs by 2014/15.

The report says recycling rates have improved quite dramatically where boroughs have introduced penalty and reward schemes. However there are benefits and drawbacks associated with both types of schemes, suggesting a single solution will not work across the capital.

The Committee also heard from those running reward schemes that participants may need to be re-incentivised once recycling rates have reached a plateau, and no-one has been fined under the compulsory model to date as the legislation was not designed for this purpose.

Watch a short video about the key findings in the report:

Key findings:

•Incentive schemes need to be specifically designed to address London-specific issues around housing stock, transient populations and equality of access.

•A more comprehensive evidence base should be developed so the effect of incentive schemes on recycling rates can be properly determined.

•Communication about the value of recycling and the need to manage waste sustainably is key to the success of the schemes.

•Weight-based reward schemes could have unintended consequences, for example individuals deliberately generating more waste to maximise their rewards.

Read the full report and the evidence received during the investigation: