Causeway Coast and Glens Council to test 'persuasive' apps which encourage recycling

At an Environmental Services Committee meeting on Tuesday, September 10, members were informed that the Northern Ireland Local Government Association (NILGA) had secured £125,000 in funding for Phase 1 of a Small Business Research Initiative to test the use of persuasive technology – mostly through apps – in increasing recycling rates.

The Department of the Economy has now made a further £220,000 of funding available for Phase 2 which will see the project extended to two local authorities, including Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council.

The focus in Causeway Coast and Glens will be on the feasibility of the approach of persuasive technology in a tourist area.

Director of Environmental Services, Aidan McPeake, said to achieve the change needed in recycling rates, “more sophisticated behavioural change interventions will be needed” and persuasive technologies, designed to change attitudes and behaviours through persuasion and social influence, have the “potential to provide such a change”.

“It’s about using apps to persuade people to to recycle more, recycle correctly, and increase our recycling rates,” he said. “There’s no cost to council, and we think it’ll be a useful initiative to assist to increase the recycling rate.

“We’ll see the feedback on the technologies and we may wish to go further and purchase those at a later date, but only if the feedback is positive and we think it’s going to make an actual difference,” added Mr McPeake.