Jump’s ‘Community Points’ model for incentivising and engaging residents in waste and recycling is being increasingly adopted by local authorities.
Torbay Council was the first local authority to adopt our Community Points model for their Torbay Green Points scheme, which was launched to all 66,000 Torbay households in July 2015. Since then, Peterborough City Council, St. Helen’s Council and the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham have all opted to use our Community Points approach for their recycling rewards schemes. These will soon be joined by the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk who are set to launch their new scheme with us later this year.
Our Community Points Model uses competition, gamification and a sense of community to motivate, engage and encourage residents in to carry out positive waste behaviours. Research into the psychology behind lasting behaviour change shows that a strong sense of community identity and of being seen to do good by those around you can be highly motivating – perhaps for some people more so than a monetary reward! Thus a key step in the development of a Community Points model scheme is to involve residents in deciding how communities are divided and named, ensuring they identify closely with their community for the duration of the scheme.
A dynamic leader board shows participants how their community is performing at any time and there are also rewards for top performing individuals. We find this combination of personal and community rewards to be ideal for motivating waste and recycling behaviours. Using a community approach also allows us to focus heavily on supporting local charities and community projects, an element which has long been part of our schemes and proves ever-popular with residents.
