I am not at all surprised by the growing interest in rewarding people for the efforts they are making to recycle.

Despite making great strides over the past decade we are still recycling just a third of what we throw away - although the research shows that the overwhelming majority of us think recycling is a good idea and want to recycle more.  So there’s a gap, and the debate is about what is the best way to encourage more recycling and reward the effort that people make.

I’ve always held the view based on the consumer research we have carried out that the best way to encourage recycling is to make it easy to do the right thing.   Fines are not the answer to improving recycling rates.

Reward schemes such as the RecycleBank scheme being developed by councils in Windsor and Halton are attracting attention and deserve active consideration They offer an opportunity to encourage more recycling by giving something back to people who put in the effort to waste less and recycle more things, more often.  Reward schemes are popular and widely used by consumers.  So it is a natural extension to see how they can be used to help the environment. It doesn’t just have to be individuals who benefit.  Schemes can be designed to enable Communities to come together  to help the local area, for example by helping the refurbishment of a community hall.

We also know from research that rewards for recycling don’t have to be financial.  One of the best “rewards” we can get is to see that our recycling efforts are making a real difference.  It’s about a contract between a council and their residents. Where people trust that their council is delivering a good service they are much more prepared to engage. Doubt about whether materials are actually recycled is one of the big barriers to participation. That is one reason why, together with the Local Government Association, we have drawn up a Waste Collection Commitment which we are encouraging councils to sign up to.

We also know from research that good recycling schemes are not just about rewards.  All the evidence shows that for schemes to work – and that means helping us to recycle as much as we can – they have to be well designed, well explained and win the support of residents.  WRAP has a lot of expertise to help councils with that.

I get dismayed when I see WRAP described sometimes, by people who don’t know how we work, as “bin police” telling councils what to do.  That is absolutely what we do not do.  The biggest lesson our research shows is that when it comes to designing recycling and collection schemes there is no one size fits all solution.  Decisions about what will work best are, and should be, local decisions.  Supporting recycling in a leafy suburb is a very different matter from on a high rise estate with huge social challenges. WRAP’s role is to provide solid evidence to support those decisions and help spread the good practice created by other authorities.

This same principle of “no one-size fits all” solution will I’m sure be also the case with reward schemes.