STUDENTS at New College Lanarkshire are to trial reverse vending machines ahead of Scotland’s impending deposit return scheme (DRS).
The trial – at the Motherwell, Coatbridge, and Cumbernauld campuses – comes as part of a partnership between Keep Scotland Beautiful and Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP).
The scheme will see a 20p reward – redeemable at the learning institute’s canteens – for every can and plastic bottle recycled through RVMs on campuses during September.
The study will build on learnings from a previous campaign between the charity, CCEP, and the University of Strathclyde, which tested various interventions and messaging to encourage students to recycle and think about their waste disposal choices, as well as their motivations for recycling.
The campaign gathered behavioural insights from more than 200 students, finding that half of the students felt that an incentive would encourage them to recycle more.
The study at New College Lanarkshire will assess how a personal financial incentive influences recycling behaviour among students, with the expectation that it will also increase the volume of recycled bottles and cans collected through the RVMs. Alongside this, three student households will document their experience with the Deposit Return Scheme over two weeks.
Jo Padwick, senior sustainability manager at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners GB, said, “Giving students the chance to live with a Deposit Return Scheme – something that will soon be a part of everyday life – will allow us to see first-hand how people interact with RVMs in reality.
“Hearing directly from students over four weeks will give us honest, human insight into both the practical and behavioural barriers to adoption, as well as what really motivates them to take part.
“Keep Scotland Beautiful brings invaluable experience to the partnership, and this kind of collaboration is key to ensuring the eventual rollout of DRS is as smooth and effective as possible.”
Barry Fisher, chief executive at Keep Scotland Beautiful, added, “We’re really looking forward to the launch of this exciting new study and hope to see a significant increase in the use of Reverse Vending Machines on the college campuses.
“We’ve learned from previous campaigns what encourages positive recycling behaviours by students and hope that this 20p incentive will motivate more people to recycle plastic bottles and cans.
“Being on the ground listening to students and capturing their thoughts on the messaging, campaign material design, ease of use and power of incentivisation will enable us to build stronger data to ensure that the incoming Deposit Return Scheme works for everyone.”
New College Lanarkshire deputy principal Ronnie Gilmour commented, “We are delighted to be a partner on this initiative. We know that living in a clean and sustainable environment is very important to our students. I’m sure the data gathered through the scheme will make an important contribution to understanding behaviour around recycling.”
