The Food Waste Research Project with Newcastle City Council

The Food Waste Research Project, Newcastle City Council

BACKGROUND

Local authorities in England have a new statutory duty from 1st April 2026 to introduce separate food waste collections – a change designed to improve recycling performance and reduce the environmental harms associated with biodegradable waste disposal going to landfill. In anticipation of this duty, Newcastle City Council sought support from INE to help strengthen the local evidence base on food waste recycling and ensure their approach was informed by residents’ needs and behaviours.

WHAT WE DID

INE convened a multi-institutional academic team whose expertise spanned behavioural science, psychology, agribusiness, sustainable business, and the built environment. INE’s brokerage ensured strong fit between the partners — matching motivations, capabilities, and expectations to the project’s aims. Working together, the partners designed a two-stage Food Waste Research Project (FWRP), aligning rapidly to the time-bound research opportunities of an initial pilot waste collection scheme in the west of the city, ahead of full city-wide roll-out.

Key activities and outputs

By exploring household decision-making, the gendered division of labour around waste disposal, and culturally specific practices, the project enabled the local authority to design targeted and segmented resident engagement approaches

Feedback from residents on the local authority's draft communication materials highlighted opportunities to improve translation into community languages, prompting revisions ahead of the city-wide launch

The research validated the success of engagement tactics such as delivering ward-level community roadshows, which will now be incorporated as a core component of the engagement strategy as it is rolled out across the city's 26 wards

The project provided independent validation for the local authority's frontline insights including third-party academic evidence strengthened internal confidence, supported democratic accountability, and helped justify the need for additional investment in resident education and engagement

Phase One provided proof-of-concept for a GIS-based system to monitor participation in the food waste scheme, offering the potential for real-time insight into resident behaviour during the roll-out

An academically-led funding bid has been submitted to develop a digital platform that integrates participation data with socio-demographic and housing information, enabling deeper analytical and evidence-led decision-making capabilities for the local authority

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