Recycle Week: six behaviour change lessons for comms professionals

It's easy to think campaign first, but where do comms pros start when they need to tackle a challenge like recycling?

By Dominic Ridley-Moy

Recycle Week, running this week, is a good opportunity to remind people why recycling matters. It's also a useful moment to think about what we mean by "recycling behaviour" because recycling isn't one behaviour, it's lots of different behaviours.

I might separate recycling at home, put the wrong thing in the recycling bin at work, then throw an empty drink bottle into general waste at a station because I can't immediately see a recycling bin.

Same person. Same day. Three different behaviours.

At home, the issue might be a lack of knowledge. At work, it might be the environment – where the bins are and how they are labelled. Out and about, it may be habit and convenience.

Wrap, the environmental NGO behind Recycle Now, found in its 2025 Recycling Tracker that 89% of people regularly recycle at least most things. Yet 79% of UK households missed at least one recyclable item from their collections, while 81% put at least one non-accepted item into their recycling.

So, when you want to tackle a challenge like recycling, where do comms pros start?

1. Start with the behaviour, not the communications

It's easy to start with: "We need a campaign about workplace recycling."

But we need to break down the behaviours first. Among people who use workplace recycling facilities, 81% say they recycle there often, according to Wrap. But 30% of people working in workplace buildings couldn't recall seeing any recycling facilities at their office.

So, the challenge is: what do we actually want people to do? Do we want people to separate food waste? Put drink cans into the right bin? Stop putting disposable cups into mixed recycling? Spend the time getting this right.

2. Don't assume an information problem

Only 9% of people in Wrap's 2025 research reported being very confident about what could and couldn't be recycled. Information matters. But knowledge is only one barrier.

Someone might know their yoghurt pot is recyclable, but the recycling bin at work is on another floor. Or they might be rushing through a station and use the first bin they see.

3. Communications are only part of the picture

The most creative recycling campaign won't help much if the recycling bin is hard to find or badly labelled. Sometimes the best intervention is putting the right bin in the right place. For communicators, that means getting involved earlier and mapping out when communications are needed and when they are not.

4. Explain why it's worth doing

One finding from Wrap's most recent research in 2026 stood out: among people whose belief in recycling had fallen, 32% pointed to negative stories about what happens to recycled materials, 29% cited a lack of feedback, and 26% said seeing others not bother made them question why they should.

Recycling communications often focus on what goes in which bin. We also need to answer: what happened because I bothered? Show people what their recycling becomes. Tell them what has happened locally. Explain the impact.

5. Use social norms carefully

Where belief in recycling had declined, many said that seeing others not bother made them question why they should. Behaviour is social.

If the recycling bin at work is constantly contaminated, that sends a signal. If everyone at an event dumps everything into one bin, that becomes the norm.

But social norm communications need to be true and credible. Saying "everyone is recycling" when they clearly aren't is unlikely to build trust.

When you have good evidence showing that most people are doing the right thing, it can be powerful.

6. Design for the moment the behaviour happens

Context matters. At home, I might have established routine around what I recycle. At work, the bin setup will be completely different. Out and about, I could be deciding in seconds – what to do with my recycling – while trying to catch a train.

So, the communications shouldn't automatically be the same.

At home, you may stop to read the poster stuck to your fridge. At work, clear bin design and prompts at the point of disposal may matter more. On the go, we may have only a few seconds to make the desired behaviour obvious.

Good behaviour change communications is about understanding who needs to do what, where, when and why – and designing communications and the environment around that behaviour.

Don't start by asking what we want to say. Start by asking what we need people to do.

Recycle Week takes place from 14–20 September.

Dominic Ridley-Moy stood in front of a TV screen and laptop. Ridley-Moy is white man wearing a black t-shirt. — Photo: Alex Rumford

Dominic Ridley-Moy is the founder of the Behaviour Change Network, a Chartered PR Practitioner and CIPR Fellow. He helps organisations use behavioural science, communications and service design to change behaviour, save money and deliver measurable impact.