Friday, August 03, 2007

Scotland -The RoWAN Waste-Free Households

The RoWAN Waste-Free Households Project worked with 100 volunteer households who aimed to become as close to waste-free as possible. Over a 12-month period (March 2003 – March 2004). A structured volunteer support programme was put in place which was backed up by strong ongoing two-way communication between the project officer and each household. Support was informative, practical and motivating, and helped the households achieve:

• a reduction in the amount of waste sent to landfill by 58% (see graph);
• a reduction in total waste arisings by 22%; Text Colour
• an increase in their recycling rate to 49%;
• an increase in their composting rate to 77% of all organic waste.

How much did people landfill each week?
(average per household)


The volunteer support programme consisted of:

• Waste guide – A-Z information on reduce, reuse and recycle in Ross-shire;
• Newsletter – regular bulletins on topical information and feedback on progress
to date;
• Subject-specific leaflets – e.g. on storage, reduction, materials;
• Project officer advice – available over the phone, in the office, by email, etc;
• Information feedback – on achievements to date – can be given for individual
household and also for the refuse collection vehicle (RCV) route as a whole;
• Incentives – e.g. competitions, certificates, targets, tokens.

The end of project Final Report and Best Practice Guide (which gives full details of the
methodology used for the project) are available by emailing
project.manager@rowanweb.org.uk

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