Gather insight

Whilst you could go straight to a bin manufacturer and purchase some recycling bins, to have the biggest impact and save time down the line we’d encourage you to spend time doing some initial research, being curious and asking the right questions.

What we’ve learnt to date…

It’s useful to first consider the context in which we’re operating and the headspace of the people whose behaviours we are trying to nudge towards correct recycling.

Here are three key insights from previous campaigns to consider:

People are busy.

They’ve likely got somewhere to be, they’re probably stressed or running late, and they’re being bombarded with information – advertising, street vendors, screaming children, traffic…you name it. So, always remember we’re trying to reach them in a busy environment and a busy state of mind.

busy people

People spend less than two seconds at a bin.

This insight came from painful observation in Leeds where we watched hundreds of punters decide what to do with their rubbish at a bin. It was a very fun day out. We saw that people would make a snap decision and if the right thing to do wasn't immediately obvious they'd just go with their gut rather than standing around trying to work it out.

2 seconds bin recycling

People are probably not thinking about recycling.

While 90% of people recycle at home, this drops to 40% on-the-go. So, it’s not a context where many people are really thinking about recycling, and yet this is where billions of recyclable materials are going to waste every year. If you’re reading this, you’re probably like us, and think about recycling more than the average person.

confused recycling

Questions for you to explore

It’s fairly safe to assume that people where you are will be busy, pretty unlikely to spend long at a recycling bin and recycling isn’t their top priority. Building upon this it can be useful to think in more detail about your specific local context and develop your own insight.

 For example, you might want to:

  • Find out if recycling on-the-go has been tested before in your local area and familiarise yourself with any reports and lessons learnt.

  • Think about the local audience. Do you have a highly transient audience with lots of visitors to your local area who won’t be familiar with your household collections for instance? If you’re introducing recycling on-the-go in a bustling city centre vs a quiet rural area, your target audience and how you can communicate to them will be different.

  • Go out and observe people while out and about, eating and drinking or using bins, and see if you notice anything interesting about their behaviours​.

  • Speak to locals: do surveys, interviews and focus groups if you can to understand their behaviours and attitudes to recycling on-the-go in more detail. Check out the survey templates here.

  • Collect information from those who spend the most time on the street such as the street cleaning operatives, waste management or collection teams for their input and ideas

  • Do an initial waste audit to determine what kind of waste is most common and what valuable materials you could be collecting and recycling. If you already have recycling bins in need of improvement, find out what’s in them and what your biggest contaminants are. Check out the measurement templates here.


Upfront investment into research and insight gathering will make your life easier and save you time down the line.