Resources

Distributing unwanted or surplus food via ‘food banks’ and redistribution charities puts food that would otherwise have been wasted to good use. 

Both residents and business in the community can donate to such schemes.

WRAP carried out research in 2012/13 to test communications aimed at:

• building awareness of the negative aspects of food waste; and,
• influencing behaviours to prevent food waste and increase the use of local authority food collection services.

This section of the Household Waste Prevention Hub provides a summary overview of the research report’s recommendations.

This section of the Waste Prevention Hub describes the extent of food waste in the home and how it can be prevented.

WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign contains useful reference material that local authorities can draw on to promote food reduction in their area.

There are a number of existing tools and benefits calculators which can be used to predict and monitor the impact of waste prevention activities. The tools use different information and methodologies to generate the results. Some offer a predictive indication of the potential impact of a service or activity to inform decision making whilst some will provide a retrospective impact based on activity information. The most appropriate tool for a local authority will depend on their specific monitoring and evaluation needs.

There are various ways to approach measuring the impact of a service or waste prevention activity. The appropriate approach to adopt will depend on the service/activity being measured and the time and resources available for monitoring. Common approaches are outlined below with more detail available in the monitoring and evaluation guidance section. 

There are also a number of measurement tools available which will indicate the impact of an intervention, during the planning and/or delivery stages.

Monitoring and evaluating waste prevention scheme performance is something that all local authorities should be doing as a matter of routine. Not only does it enable assessment of whether schemes are performing as expected, it also helps diagnose problems, design new approaches and ultimately improve efficiency and effectiveness.

This section provides links to WRAP’s communications guidance. It provides both general and specific waste prevention communications guidance as well as case studies and pilots on successful communications activities.

Defra’s Framework for Sustainable Lifestyles (published October 2011) set out an approach to understanding and influencing behaviour. The framework provides evidence-based insights on the motivations and barriers to action and approaches to influencing behaviour.

Communicating re-use is essential to increase donations of items for re-use and increase demand for donated items. WRAP provides a number of materials to support local authorities with their communications campaigns.

Effective communications will be tailored to suit different stakeholder groups and their different behaviours and motivations. Local authorities should work with local partners to push out communications and use national brands to build awareness on key waste prevention issues.

Understanding the motivations and behaviours of different stakeholders is essential to targeting the right messages to the right audiences.

As a local authority you may not be best placed to deliver messages to all audiences so it is important to look for partners who residents engage with.