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Evaluation of the Auckland Council Community WasteWise programme of work

Author:  
Jesse Allpress; Rachael Butler; Ashleigh Prakash; Kathryn Ovenden
Source:  
Auckland Council Research and Evaluation Unit RIMU)
Publication date:  
2023
Topics:  
Environment

Extracts from the Executive summary

Auckland Council aspires to achieve zero waste by 2040. Doing so will require significant shifts in how waste is produced, reduced and recycled across the region. The council’s Community WasteWise team funds a significant amount of community-based waste reduction activity, in service of getting to zero waste by 2040. This evaluation was commissioned to understand the outcomes associated with WasteWise initiatives and to improve the effectiveness of the programme of work.

Conducted in 2022, and drawing on interviews and focus groups with WasteWise staff and community partner staff, as well as monitoring data and a survey of the public, this evaluation reports on lessons from the set-up and delivery of WasteWise-funded initiatives, and outcomes arising from them. The report also includes three case studies and recommendations for improvement. ...

Using behavioural insights to reduce waste

This evaluation is supported by a supplementary report titled A review of interventions to reduce household waste. This report reviews interventions aiming to reduce waste to landfill that could be adopted by Auckland Council and community partners, and summarises two useful behavioural insights frameworks for use when designing future waste-reduction programmes. The two reports are intended to be used together, where the present report provides specific recommendations for improving the WasteWise programme of work, and the supplementary report on behavioural insights acts as a resource for implementing some of the recommendations.

Recommendations

A number of detailed recommendations are provided across the following areas:

  • Improving the capacity of community partners by developing training and mentoring offerings in areas of governance, enterprise, internal administration, communications, monitoring and evaluation, and behavioural science
  • Providing more opportunities to strengthen support networks among community partner organisations
  • Reviewing the WasteWise programme’s focus with maximising impact in mind
  • Make better use of behavioural insights frameworks
  • Further assisting community partners in engaging with the public
  • Improving aspects of funding and contracting
  • Further supporting monitoring and evaluation.

Auckland Council technical report, TR2023/1

February 2023

See also A literature review of interventions to reduce household waste



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