Pledging to Slim Your Bin: Does it work?

Recently we in the RoWAN office have not been out-and-about as much - but  we're still around and working hard. We've been doing a bit of research for our funders, INCREASEIII, about pledging and whether it works as a way of helping people to reduce their waste.
Through our Pledge to Slim Your Bin initiative over 600 people promised to take particular actions to reduce their household waste - anything from reducing food waste to buying a refillable drinks bottle to recycling more glass.

The good news is that PLEDGING WORKS! Of the people we were able to contact, over 60% say that pledging helped them reduce their waste. We're now contacting these pledgers a second time to find out if pledging does change behaviour, and whether these changes last as time goes on.

 People are reporting that their bins are emptier, and that their new waste-busting actions are lasting as the months go by - and that they're feeling really positive about making the difference. Here's some typical comments:
"Pledging has helped me to reduce my waste much more than I expected. I'm really proud of myself - my bin is now almost empty, and before it was half full."

"I was doing well at the bog-standard recycling, but pledging gave me some new ideas and I've cut my unwanted mail and my food waste now."
"RoWAN put the messages across in a fun way. Pledging got the family involved as we explained to the children that this is what we'd promised to do, and we all had to work together to do it."
"Going through the pledging form made me realise that we were wasting lots of food. I now don't buy as much and ask myself "When will I use this?"

"Our bin is much emptier, we're saving money and now we're looking at energy efficiency as the next step. Thank you very much!"