Civil Service Blog: Keep It, Bin It: working to discourage young people from littering

Oliver Nicholls, Posted on:6 February 2020

Keep It, Bin It: working to discourage young people from littering

Extracts:

Keep It, Bin It is a national anti-litter campaign, backed by commercial partners such as Greggs, Mars Wrigley Confectionery, and McDonald’s. It was launched in November 2018, born out of a commitment in the April 2017 Litter Strategy for England to create a national anti-litter behaviour change campaign.

Working with partners has led to real success. The campaign has had high recall among the target audience. Surveys have also shown a reduction in the proportion of 16- to 24-year-olds who find it acceptable to litter if bins are full or there are no bins around.

<aside> 💡 Measurable Outcomes?

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Litter’s impact on all aspects of our wildlife is heart-breaking. But researching the campaign gave us surprising insights into which animals most tugged the heartstrings. Pictures of hedgehogs were seen to be more emotive than, for example, pigeons, foxes and grey squirrels, perhaps because these animals have negative connotations in cities.

<aside> 💡 Where is research?

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Nationwide, young people are increasingly taking action for our environment. Our campaign has used this as an opportunity to encourage this generation to consider the impacts of littering.

The Government Campaign

Keep it, Bin it

Published 30 November 2018

The Keep it, Bin it campaign calls for an end to rubbish excuses for littering and encourages people to responsibly dispose of their litter.

The campaign has a clear call to action: if there’s not a bin, keep your rubbish and then bin it when there is one.

Last updated 15 March 2019

15 March 2019Updated the email address for partnership teams to express an interest to: [email protected]

10 December 2018 Updated the email address to send expression of interests for becoming a partner.

30 November 2018 First published.

This is one of the largest government-led anti-littering campaigns to date. We have joined forces with environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy and are partnering with leading brands across a range of sectors to run the campaign. Together, we can make a real change.

Tackling litter is a government priority, set out in the Litter Strategy for England and the 25 Year Environment Plan, launched in early 2018 by the Prime Minister.

Becoming a campaign partner

We are keen to hear from commercial and charitable organisations that are interested in joining our campaign.

Simply email our partnerships team at [email protected] to express an interest.

You can follow the campaign by searching #KeepItBinIt

Alternatively, you can like the Defra Facebook page or follow us on Instagram to see the latest campaign activity.

Devastating impact on nature highlighted in new campaign to fight litter30 November 2018 Press release

Government policy

We will work with others to clean up the country and change attitudes towards littering.