Resources

The Covid-19 pandemic is having a profound effect on citizens’ daily lives, including wide-reaching impacts on food behaviours. WRAP undertook a comprehensive series of four UK-wide surveys – in April, May, September and November 2020 – to understand how it has affected citizens’ food habits, behaviours and attitudes. Each of the surveys were undertaken online with large (4,000+) independent samples of UK adults with responsibility for food shopping and/or preparation.

Textiles take-back schemes, where customers donate unwanted clothing to retailers to be re-used or recycled, are a key part of developing a more circular fashion industry.

WRAP is a charity promoting a resource-efficient future. 

The third in a series of reports detailing how UK citizens’ food habits, behaviours and attitudes have changed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Key findings

• Almost four in five UK citizens (79%) undertook additional food management behaviours during lockdown, and these behaviours endured as lockdown eased.
• However, fewer than 30% of us see a link between wasting food and climate change.
• New 'Wasting Food: It's Out of Date' brand to bring to life the devastating environmental cost of wasting food.

The Recycling Tracker is an annual survey of UK households that gathers evidence on recycling attitudes, knowledge and behaviour. It is the largest and longest running of its kind, having been undertaken by WRAP since 20041. Fieldwork was undertaken online by Icaro, between the 21 st – 31st March 2019. A total of 5,452 interviews were undertaken - in England (4,288), Wales (656), Scotland (207) and Northern Ireland (301).

Extra boost sampling was undertaken in London (to 989) and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) area (to 496). The data from each of the four nations/regions was combined according to their share of the UK population – giving an ‘effective UK base’2 of 4,628.

The Recycling Tracker is an annual survey of UK households that gathers evidence on consumers’ current attitudes, knowledge and behaviour in relation to recycling.

WRAP’s mission is to accelerate the move to a sustainable, resource-efficient economy through:

• re-inventing how we design, produce and sell products
• re-thinking how we use and consume products
• re-defining what is possible through re-use and recycling

This section introduces ways in which to effectively encourage householders to enact waste prevention behaviours.

Once you have identified which waste stream to target the next step is to “get to know” your audience, understand their issues, and how to target them effectively.

This section highlights the main environmental drivers in planning, establishing and maintaining a waste prevention plan.

Making the case for waste prevention requires an understanding of the possible types of waste prevention activities that could be adopted and an indication of what these could achieve if they were implemented.    

This report explores the existing evidence about the effectiveness of providing factual information (including content, source and format) on the environmental sustainability of a product, and its impact in influencing consumer (individual and organisational) buying decisions.