Sometimes changing behaviour requires a complicated scheme, a large budget and several meetings.
Sometimes, apparently, you just apply a sticker.
A Mid Devon District Council trial involving households in Crediton has found that almost half of people identified as not putting out food waste started doing so after receiving a simple reminder on their black bin.
The experiment ran between June and August across parts of Crediton, Tiverton, Cullompton, Sampford Peverell and Newton St Cyres.
Around 1,500 properties were initially monitored. More than 200 households were identified as not presenting a food-waste caddy for collection.
They were then given a reminder sticker on their black bin.
Afterwards, 49% started putting food waste out for recycling.
The bigger problem is inside the black bin
The sticker may be the funny part of the story, but the figures behind it are rather less amusing.
Mid Devon Council estimates that somewhere between 2,600 and 3,000 tonnes of food waste is still being thrown into black bins across the district every year.
That means food accounts for roughly one quarter of everything currently ending up in Mid Devon’s black bins.
And this is material for which households already have a separate weekly collection.
Meat, fish, bones, fruit and vegetables, bread, pasta, dairy products, eggshells, tea and coffee grounds and cooked leftovers can all go into the blue kerbside food caddy.
So MDDC’s problem isn’t necessarily persuading people that food can be recycled, it is getting everyone to actually separate it.
FOOD IN BLACK BINSAround 2,600 – 3,000 tonnes
Still thrown away each year
THE TRIALAround 1,500 homes monitored
More than 200 weren’t participating
THE RESULT49% changed their behaviour
After a simple reminder sticker
What exactly did they do?
For the first three weeks, the council monitored whether households in the trial areas were putting their food-waste containers out.
Those which weren’t were identified for what MDDC calls a targeted intervention.
In this case that included a sticker placed on the household’s black bin reminding residents to recycle food waste and explaining how to obtain a food-waste caddy if they needed one.
The council then monitored them again.
Nearly one household in every two changed what it was doing.
That is a fairly impressive return for something which didn’t involve fines nor a change to collection frequency.
Before
Not using the food collection
More than 200 households were identified during monitoring.
AfteR THE REMINDER
49% started using it
Almost half subsequently presented food waste for collection.
Why does it matter where a potato peeling goes?
Because the two bins lead to very different places.
Food collected separately by Mid Devon Council is sent to an anaerobic digestion facility, where bacteria break it down without oxygen.
The gas produced by that process is captured and used to generate energy, while the remaining material becomes an organic fertiliser.
Put the same food into the black bin and it instead becomes part of the district’s residual waste – the material MDDC has to pay to dispose of.
The council therefore says keeping food out of black bins can reduce disposal costs as well as lowering the environmental impact of the service.
Mid Devon already collects around 3,700 tonnes of food waste a year, but says another 2,600 to 3,000 tonnes could potentially be diverted from black bins if households separated all of their food waste.
Worth knowing
Food waste is collected every week, even though Mid Devon’s general black-bin waste is only collected every three weeks.
So are the stickers coming to more bins?
Probably.
MDDC says it is now looking at rolling the scheme out into other parts of the district, as well as considering further ways of encouraging residents to recycle more of their food waste.
The council is also making kitchen food caddies more widely available.
Smaller grey kitchen caddies were introduced this year to make it easier to collect scraps indoors before transferring them to the larger kerbside container. MDDC is also looking to make them available through council buildings, leisure centres, town and parish councils and other community locations.
The lesson from the trial may ultimately be rather simpler.
Mid Devon District Council has spent years changing bins, collection schedules and recycling systems.
One of its more effective interventions appears to have been:
“Oi. Food doesn’t go in there.”
Only phrased slightly more politely.
Sources & transparency
This article is based on Mid Devon District Council’s published results from its 2026 food-waste recycling trial, together with council information on its food-waste collection and recycling process. The 49% result applies to targeted households across the trial areas collectively, which included Crediton; MDDC has not published a separate result for Crediton alone.
