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Recycling leadership by young people in the home
5 January 2012
Take Home Action on Waste, a programme by Waste Watch provides the first attempt to measure the intergenerational influence of a schools education programme on recycling at home.We published an academic paper eariler this year in collaboration with Ian Williams at Southampton University based upon our Take Home Action on Waste project in Rotherham. THAW demonstrated the impact of a school education programme that enabled young people to influence household recycling behaviour.
Whilst the education of young people is often seen as a part of the solution to current environmental problems seeking urgent attention, it is often forgotten that their parents and other household members can also be educated/influenced via home-based educational activities.
The project worked with 6,705 primary age children in 39 schools to enable them to take the ‘‘reduce, reuse and recycle message’’ home to their families and to engage these (i.e. families) in sustainable waste management practices.
As well as substantial increases in students’ knowledge and understanding of waste reduction, measurement
of the impact of the project in areas around 12 carefully chosen sample schools showed evidence of increased participation in recycling (8.6%) and recycling tonnages (4.3-8.7%) as well as declining levels of residual waste (4.5%).
The full paper is available from Waste Management
