Harmonising waste sorting in the EU: what citizens think

Some exciting news from our project to harmonise waste sorting labels across the EU! 

What’s new? 

Over the last few months the EU Policy Lab, together with consortium leader Open Evidence and the behavioural design agency Krukow, have developed a prototype for harmonised waste sorting labels based on prior research and the Nordic labelling system. 

To understand how this would work in the field, Open Evidence and the Politecnico di Milano discussed this prototype with 245 EU citizens from six Member States, in 12 collaborative workshops. 

The selected countries - Austria, Czechia, Estonia, Italy, Greece and Poland - reflect the diversity of Europe in terms of recycling rates, how citizens commonly sort their waste, population characteristics, and existing approaches to waste sorting labelling.  

Citizens with diverse profiles and backgrounds participated and engaged in interactive activities to co-design waste sorting labels that work for their countries. The goal throughout this project had always been to engage and actively involve citizens as experts in their own lived experiences and needs. 

Each workshop followed the same structure, and was coordinated by one of our 12 experienced facilitators in local languages: 

• Label assessment, first, participants were asked to rate each label in the prototype according to different key dimensions like how accessible or easy to understand they were; 
• Idea generation, this kicked off a brainstorming session in small groups, where participants were asked to think about new and improved ideas for waste labelling systems; 
• Concept development, when each group selected one idea and worked it up into a concept with user journeys and sketches; 
• The final presentation and discussion, which allowed for collective reflections in the larger group to gather further insights. 

We’ll dive into one key aspect for each of the participating countries below – drawing from the impressions that the workshop facilitators shared with us. 

What were the national preferences? 

Austria 

After facilitating their workshops in Austria, Catherine and Tobias said that 

“it was clear to citizens in Austria that companies needed to step up and take the lead on sustainability. If businesses focus on reducing packaging and choosing sustainable materials, we can make a much bigger impact. Moreover, it motivated citizens to recycle if they know that companies are doing all that they can to create products with sustainable materials.”  
Catherine Collins and Tobias Lichtenstern

Czechia 

Anežka, from Czechia said that people appear to welcome harmonised waste labels. For successful implementation, participants suggested drawing on what already works well and keeping the system as simple as possible. At the same time, it should be supported by a single information platform with all details that can help in situations when recycling is unclear, such as how to correctly separate materials and how to handle dirty packaging. They stressed the importance of communicating and educating citizens adequately (by language and format). Doing this in the right way for different communities and cultures will be essential. 

Estonia 

After leading their workshops in Estonia, Maarja and Jane shared that 

“participants were positively minded toward the waste sorting labelling system, emphasising the importance of intuitive, accessible, and minimalistic designs. They valued the approach to simplify sorting and discussed how to ensure inclusivity with added features for accessibility and digital guidance. The system should be something everyone can understand and use effectively, and the synergy of this diverse group of participants is a promising step toward creating just that.” 

Greece 

In Greece, the participant discussed several topics during two online workshops sessions: from how to recycle cooked olive oil, to capacity building in schools, advocacy and awareness raising campaigns. They expressed the need to connect the recycling labelling system with the urgent need for action for the climate and the future, more generally. 

Italy 

In Italy, where the workshops were conducted in person, participants highlighted that education and awareness-raising are key to forming habits early on, to make recycling part of everyday behaviour. Especially when introducing a new system, incentives need to be in place to motivate citizens and compensate for the additional effort that change requires. 

Poland 

In Poland, citizens appreciated the opportunity to express their opinions and were eager to engage in the possibility of co-creating solutions. They focused on effective introduction of a harmonised waste labelling system and stressed the importance of simplicity, early education and effective communication about the entire process as well as the  impact of waste sorting by citizens. 

What’s next? 

The results and final outcomes of the workshops are currently being elaborated and analysed against the results of the citizen survey, which involved more than 16,000 participants from 21 Member States.  

All these outcomes will then inform the iteration of the prototype, so stay tuned!