Environmental Behaviours App RCTs

At the district level Wakefield is the 54th most deprived district in England (out of 317 districts). The IMD 2019 shows that 54,200 people in the district are living in neighbourhoods amongst the top-10% most deprived in England.

Renewi and Wakefield Council wanted to utilise digital media in the form of an app to leverage behaviour change around recycling and environmentally positive behaviours, and MEL Research Ltd were appointed to undertake a randomised control trial amongst three areas (a control and two different conditions) each of which represented Wakefield as a whole.

The research explored a range of elements including the way in which the app was advertised (or not) and the impact of that on app uptake, perceptions of the app (usability, level of information, design, content etc) and for those who did take up the app, the impact usage had on behaviours including contamination in dry recycling, levels of change in recyclable materials, and a range of other behavioural indicators.

To measure any impact the engagement approach had on the selected campaign areas, a mixed methods approach was used across 300 households in total (100 per condition). Part of this was waste analysis. In addition, participation monitoring, an online survey and an online discussion community were all utilised. ACORN profiling, taking in to account IMD data, was utilised to ensure each Condition was made up of 100 households that were representative proportionally of Wakefield (matched samples).

The results suggested that, particularly amongst more deprived audiences, traditional media is required to support digital media in terms of behaviour change.