Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
Social Research ¦ Market Research ¦ Behavioural Insight ¦ Evaluation ¦ SROI
Following on from the introduction of a new household waste collection service and consultation carried out in 2014, the council wanted to follow up any changes as well as adding more insight into the attitudes and barriers to recycling. Specific focuses were placed on the lower uptake of the food waste collection, with the project’s main aim being to assist in better communications work with residents to help increase recycling performance.
Having delivered the equivalent insight survey in 2014, M·E·L Research was well placed to undertake this work and able to introduce several enhancements on the previous project, for example. more detailed sub-group analysis using CACI’s Acorn, and projective mapping of key variables. The sampling frame was designed to be representative of the Acorn category profile of the study area and also of the number of people per household . Overall 1,000 face-to-face interviews and 250 booster telephone interviews were carried out using a questionnaire largely similar to the 2014 survey to allow trend analysis.
Trend analysis was carried out by comparing the 2015 and 2014 survey results to track any changes in behaviour and attitudes to recycling. Various sub-group analysis highlighted how behaviours are affected by age, household size etc. To provide further insight into the characteristics of respondents not using the food waste bin, segmentation analysis utilising CACI’s Acorn at the Group level was conducted on the targeted group of respondents who claimed to never use the service. Combining our conceptual insight into the nature of the modern barriers, and also the advanced technology which enable us to highlight and pinpoint the priority areas at the level of spatial detail, M·E·L Research was able to help the councils devise highly targeted interventions and communications to gain the next step up in recycling performance.
M·E·L Research have a professional, organised approach to their work. They recently carried out a comprehensive customer insight survey for Cheshire West and Chester Council which was completed within the expected timescales and gave us important information on our Recycle First scheme.
Liz Ellis, Cheshire West and Chester Council
