This year, WRAP’s Recycling Tracker celebrates 20 years of tracking the attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of citizens in the UK. It is the largest survey of its kind, highlighting the critical issues we must tackle to make real progress.
The Recycling Tracker provides a fresh look at citizens’ attitudes and behaviours when it comes to recycling.
Fieldwork was undertaken online, from 21 March – 5 April 2024. A total of 5,438 adults across the UK were interviewed who have responsibility for dealing with the rubbish and recycling in the home. The sample set quotas on age, gender and region to closely represent the nation’s population.
Key findings
- Recycling is an established and normalised behaviour in the UK: Nine in ten (90%) UK citizens reporting that they regularly recycle at least most things that can be recycled.
- But there are high rates of missed capture: Over three in four (79%) of UK citizens report disposing of recyclable materials in general rubbish. On average, each household misses 2.4 recyclables when including glass perfume bottles.
- Contamination: 82% of citizens are putting non-recyclable items in recycling bins, a slight increase from 81% in 2023. Contamination remains a persistent issue, especially for items like drinking glasses, Pyrex, and toothpaste tubes, with contamination rates up 6 percentage points since 2017.
- Social norms have declined: Less than 1 in 5 (18%) UK citizens perceive a very positive norm (9-10 out of 10) for dry recycling in their area.
- Low confidence levels: Less than 1 in 10 (9%) UK citizens feel "very confident" about what can and cannot be recycled, with the majority (58%) only "mostly confident." This lack of knowledge leads to high levels of missed capture and contamination.
- Worthwhileness and recycling: Three in four (75%) citizens who believe recycling is very worthwhile state they recycle everything, a significant increase compared to the UK average. In comparison, just under half (45%) of citizens who view recycling as fairly or not worthwhile are significantly more likely state they only recycle most but not all items.
- Low communication reach: Less than half (47%) of UK citizens report receiving recycling information from their local council in the past year. Those who did receive recent communication report higher confidence in their recycling efforts and perceive recycling as more worthwhile.
- Impact of campaigns: 80% of citizens who have seen ‘Britain Recycles’ assets and 85% of citizens who have seen Wales-focused initiatives like ‘Be Mighty Recycle’ agree their own recycling efforts are worthwhile, compared to 72% of UK citizens on average.
- Food waste recycling: 41% of citizens in the UK have access to and use a food waste recycling service – a marginal increase of 2% compared to 2023. 7% of citizens have access but have never used, and 9% of citizens have previously used it but have since stopped (lapsed users).
Together for a Circular Future
The Spring 2024 tracker finds there is a strong need for more frequent communications from both local authorities and communication campaigns such as ‘Britain Recycles’ and ‘Be Mighty’ focusing on both ‘functional’ knowledge (e.g. what can/cannot be recycled); as well as motivational knowledge and feedback (i.e. what happens to the materials post-collection and what kinds of products are created through recycling; how well the area is doing; what the benefits are).
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Recycling Tracker survey in the UK - Spring 2024
PDF, 1.2 MB
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