Causes of Litter and Flytipping: A behavioural systems mapping project

Preventing litter and flytipping sits at the heart of the National Litter and Flytipping Strategy, published in June 2023. Through this strategy, Zero Waste Scotland held the action to work with a diverse range of stakeholders to scope options for increased prevention focus and delivery across Scotland.

The work uncovered a huge range of influences on these target behaviours ranging from influences focused on the individual such as:

• the desire not to be inconvenienced
• social pressures and being unaware of responsibilities in relation to waste
• as well as more structural factors such as the availability of appropriate disposal routes and lack of a deterrent for negative behaviours

What the report highlights is just how many of the influences are not currently being addressed through existing interventions. A comprehensive approach to behaviour change would require multiple, complementary interventions being delivered together.

Key highlights from the research include:

• Tackling littering needs to include more intervention around the ‘Opportunity’ and ‘Motivation’ intervention types as well as focusing on individual’s awareness and understanding
• Less is known about how flytipping prevention can be enabled
• A total of 191 influences on litter and flytipping behaviour were recognised by stakeholders who work in the sector and through existing publications
• A one size fits all approach to intervention would not target the influences noted in the research
• Looking at the range of influences using a model such as COM-B (Capability, Opportunity and Motivation) was helpful to develop detail around our understanding of why these issues are hard to address