In Bassano del Grappa, one of the four pilot areas of the European LIFE-REthinkWASTE project, the testing of the KAYT (“Know-as-you-throw”) approach continues and is enhanced with important news!
In fact, from 10 May to date, the 247 users registered for the “Riciclo e vinco!” competition have received three tailored messages encouraging them to improve their separate waste collection.
ETRA collaborated with Prof. Alessandro Bucciol and Prof. Simone Quercia of the University of Verona, Department of Economic Sciences, to define the text of the messages and verify through statistical analysis the effectiveness of the personalised communication strategy to the users.
In particular, users were divided into two statistical groups and will receive alternately generic messages with advice on separate waste collection and personalised messages that give an indication of the actual number of undifferentiated waste collected by users, comparing the data both with the previous year and with the average data for similar users in terms of number of members. In this way, users will receive immediate feedback and will be encouraged to recycle more and more!
This personalised communication strategy assumes the availability of up-to-date data on each individual user. This is made possible by the use of high-frequency radio technology (RFID) which, through tags attached to the bins, provides real-time data on the number of emptyings of each household. ETRA has been using these technologies for a long time and they allow it to apply precise pricing of the service, according to the “polluter pays” principle that rewards the most virtuous users.
On the other hand, the added value of the LIFE-REthinkWASTE project is the use of these data for a personalised communication to the users, through the use of the social platforms of Whatsapp and Telegram, in line with the KAYT approach of informing the user about the separate collection carried out and the objectives to be achieved.
This is a step forward for the project, which will disseminate the results achieved at European level, to encourage the use of new technologies to improve separate collection.
