UNDP
Bhutan
The National Environment Commission of Bhutan, the lead agency for the Waste Management flagship, approached UNDP to support a communications plan to help people segregate waste at source. Instead of looking at bandaid solutions, UNDP proposed an experimental approach to understand the underlying issues as to why households are not segregating waste at source. A Randomised Control Trial was conducted in one of the communities in the capital city with 600 households, under three different arms. 200 hhs were the control group, 200 in the treatment group were provided with three colored bins and information (in the form of bin stickers), while another 200 hhs were provided with three colored bins, information and feedback messages. The trial was conducted over a period of four weeks. Both treatments statistically significantly improved the proportion of correctly segregated dry waste. Households that were assigned the "bins plus information" intervention increased quality of their dry waste segregation by between 6.3 and 8.4 percentage points, compared to households that received no intervention. Households that were assigned "bins plus information plus feedback messages" increased quality of their dry waste segregation by between 7.2 and 10.7 percentage points. Based on the results, several recommendations were put forward for scaling the provision of waste bins and messaging to households.