aub sustainability award 2024
Multi-disciplinary
Final-Major Project
Challenge
How can we reduce litter and improve planetary health?
Strategy
With litter increasing and local service funding cuts, local communities are now the answer to the litter blighting our environment. Young people are the biggest litterers but they also account for the generation most concerned about the future of the climate.
Nudge targets eco-conscious teenagers by gamifying litter. Our smart bins tally your amount of waste binned whilst providing positive reinforcement and rewards. The scheme uses behaviour nudging techniques for non-eco-conscious teenagers to intervene in the user journey when litter is most likely to occur.
Nudge’s verbal branding resonates with the 80 per cent of 14-16-year-olds who feel pressured to save the planet but don't think they are well enough equipped to make a difference. The language and brand style are a fresh approach for the waste disposal industry and the scheme is proactive and rewarding in comparison to many anti-litter campaigns.
The educational video below can be displayed on the bin screens and aims to educate people about the environmental consequences of litter. By doing so in a short and bold video it encourages passers-by to engage with the content and then provides Nudge as the solution.
With fast food packaging dominating litter, the collaboration aims to tackle the behaviour at the source. By providing fast food employees with biodegradable stickers, which are applied to the packaging, customers are nudged to use a bin and begin earning rewards which leads to change.
Exploring manipulation
While looking for signs of human manipulation I couldn’t ignore the negative signs and was shocked at how much litter I could see once I started looking.
(CPRE, 2020)
(Plastic Soup Foundation, 2021)
(Keep Britain Tidy, 2024)
(Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council, 2023)
My key insights from this interview were that people lack education surrounding litter, litter picking is proactive and makes a difference and the consequences of litter are poorly understood.
Fuelled by my research, I experimented with creating visuals with the litter I’d found to highlight the consequnces of our actions.
The Dorset Devils are volunteer litter pickers local to Bournemouth. I was provided with a grabber, bucket and gloves to pick up litter whenever suited me.
I found the task very rewarding and in less then an hour I collected 2 buckets worth.
My key insights from this interview were that people of all ages and backgrounds take part, local residents are wanting to make a change and it’s fallen to community members to pick up litter after council failings.
Bournemouth’s headlines of litter left on beaches and in public spaces made it my project focus. I also spoke to an older adults who explained that he tried to report litter and couldn’t, so I tested it this and also unable to.
Using this theory I was able to explain the current littering system and identify where I could create a design intervention.
I chose to target the litterers who do so occasionally as these are the ‘low hanging fruit’ and least resistant to change, increasing the chance of a societal ‘tipping point’.
I made paper from the grass at West Cliff and created biodegradable signage. The signs will be dropped like litter and ironically display anti-litter messages. These signs are a down-stream option however and aren’t suitable as they intervene too late in the user journey. It is also a format that’s unlikely to appeal to teenagers and it currently lacks gamification.
I collected my receipts and was shocked at how much of my food comes in single-use packaging. This route visualises the amount of plastic in our environment and gives people the tools to reduce their consumption. Upon reflection of this idea, it disregards the knowledge that behaviour change occurs from positive signage. It may appear a negative approach to litter and an inappropriate tool for reducing litter overall.
This idea encourages communities to take pride in their local area by picking up litter and rewarding them for it. It uses bright colours to appeal to teenagers and highlights the value packaging has if binned.
Abbie Hampton, 15
Claire Gellard- psychologist with a social behaviour focus
Em J- Litter Free Dorset
People have 2 thinking systems, one for making automatic decisions and one for methodical decisions. Nudges in design are effective at behaviour change because they appeal to the automatic system. Using different nudging techniques I can encourage people to not litter and create sustained behaviour change.
We strive to provide the tools to help young people positively impact their local environment and take charge of the climate crisis.
I tested out different typefaces and formats for the brand identity. It was important the type was bold and had character but I felt the impact of the messaging was lacking for the target audience. There was also a lack of texture and the overall designs felt flat.
I also used popular littered items and rolled them in ink to make a texture. The mark-making represents the invisible marks made by litter as it’s blown around the floor and the grain in the ink adds a rugged and dirty aesthetic similar to litter.
It was great to receive positive feedback from my users and to hear that they could see it working with young people in a real-world scenario.
Peter Ryan, Dorset Devil’s founder
Emj- Litter Free Dorset
©AMELIA BLANTERN 2024