Reducing littering

Looking at behaviours linked to reducing littering

What behaviour are you trying to change? E.g Not leaving litter after meeting friends and family in the park
Whose behaviour are you trying to change? E.g 16-30 year olds
Where are you trying to change the behaviour? E.g In the councils’ parks
When are you trying to change the behaviour? In the weekday evenings and weekends
How often are you trying to change the behaviour? Every time someone goes to the park with a picnic

What are the drivers/barries to litter dropping?

Do your communities have the capability to not leave litter?	Psychological capability	Do they know to always take their litter away with them? Do they remember to take their litter with them, or put it in the bin/recycling bin? Do they plan to always throw their litter away? Do residents know how to pick up litter in a safe way which does not expose them to COVID-19?
Do your communities have the capability to not leave litter?	Physical capability	Can residents bend or crouch to pick up their own or other’s litter?
Do your communities have the opportunity to not leave litter?	Physical opportunity	Do they have a litter picker or a bag on their person to pick up the litter and put it somewhere? Is there a bin nearby for them to put the litter into? Are residents in a place where litter is dropped?
Do your communities have the opportunity to not leave litter?	Social opportunity	Are those around them picking up litter? Do those around them take their litter away with them? Do those who they are with encourage and support litter picking, or taking their own litter away with them? Do they spend time with people who put their litter in the bin? Do others in the community think that their neighbours should take their litter with them?
Do your communities have the motivation to not leave litter?	Automatic motivation	What is someone’s want or need right now? Do you not want to carry anything at all? Do they feel that the bin too far away to walk to?
Do your communities have the motivation to not leave litter?	Reflective motivation	Did a person plan to leave their rubbish? Did they plan to litter pick in their day or week? What belief or attitude does someone hold to littering, or picking up litter? Is not littering part of someone’s identity, or are they carefree?

What interventions could you use?

Persuasion

Show the litter in a park/another country and the harm to wildlife (Reflective motivation)

Incentivisation

Ballot bin - https://ballotbin.co.uk/ (Automatic motivation)

Coercion

Issue a fine for littering (Reflective motivation)

Training

A video on how to pick up litter in a safe way whilst we are living with COVID-19 (Psychological capability)

Environmental restructuring

Provide plenty of bins and recycling bins in parks and outdoor spaces (Physical opportunity)

Modelling

Organise a litter picking day where local leaders turn up to pick up litter from litter hot spots (Social opportunity)
Videos or pictures of someone similar to you litter picking in tidy parks (Reflective motivation)

Enablement

Provide a litter picker which can be picked up from the council or a community/volunteer group (Physical opportunity)