CIWM Early Careers Ambassador Khadeeja Osman, Sustainability and Engagement Lead at Bristol Waste Company, explores how local authorities can drive behaviour change up the waste hierarchy.
Waste management in the UK has undergone a notable transformation in recent years, with local authorities and businesses increasingly adopting innovative approaches to reduce waste and improve resource efficiency.
The pressure to meet net zero targets has brought the resource and circular economy agenda to the forefront, driving policy shifts and investment in more sustainable systems.
Policy signals are also clear. The Environment Act 2021, Simpler Recycling reforms, and the emerging Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime are reconfiguring the role of local authorities and pushing the sector beyond operational performance metrics toward a more holistic view of waste prevention, reuse, and circularity.
But legislative frameworks alone will not drive the change needed at the household and community levels. Recycling rates are plateauing in many areas across the country, and the challenge of contamination persists.
Improving that requires people – consumers, residents, families – to make different choices. And this is where local authorities, uniquely placed at the intersection of service delivery and resident engagement, must lead.
Many waste strategies are often reactive: dealing with materials only once they enter the waste stream, which limits opportunities for meaningful impact. By contrast, interventions that target behaviour before waste is generated – around purchasing, repairing, sharing, or simply choosing not to consume – can offer greater environmental returns.
This is not just theory. WRAP estimates that waste prevention delivers significantly higher carbon savings than recycling. Yet these upstream actions rarely attract the same strategic focus or investment as recycling collection rounds, bin infrastructure, or waste processing.
With that in mind, what does it look like for local authorities to ‘go up the waste hierarchy’?
Up the hierarchy: Rethinking the role of local government
Prevention through public engagement
National campaigns like Love Food Hate Waste are powerful templates, but they need sustained, locally tailored delivery. Councils can act as trusted messengers, combining behavioural insights with on-the-ground knowledge.
In Bristol, there is a range of targeted campaigns that reflect this approach in action. Students on the Move addresses the significant spike in waste during student changeover periods by offering clear guidance, extra collections, and donation points for unwanted items to reduce fly-tipping and promote reuse.
The Big Tidy combines deep-cleaning efforts with a robust community engagement element, encouraging residents and businesses to take pride in their neighbourhoods while tackling littering at its root.
These initiatives not only reduce waste but also build a culture of shared responsibility and sustainable habits. They show how councils, by tailoring national goals to local needs, can meaningfully climb the waste hierarchy and lead the shift from reactive waste management to proactive waste prevention.
Enabling reuse and repair
Investment in community reuse networks, repair cafes and local circular hubs can empower residents to keep products in use longer. Forward-thinking councils are already piloting circular economy zones and item libraries to make reuse and repair more accessible.
In Bristol, reuse shops have hit a major milestone, with 350,000 items sold or donated in their reuse shops since opening in 2020, including a record 100,000 items in the last year alone.
Bristol Waste Company has joined the Bristol Repair coalition, a city-wide alliance launched in 2024 that brings together the council, universities, community groups, and social enterprises to embed repair and reuse into city planning and waste strategies. This collaborative network supports repair cafés, skill-building workshops, and local policy advocacy to shift behaviours and build circular habits.
Such initiatives are vital because they help move communities up the waste hierarchy to reduce reliance on disposal by fostering a culture of maintenance, sharing and resourcefulness.
Procurement and policy levers.
Local authorities can lead by example by embedding circularity into the way they buy goods and services. Public procurement represents between 12% and 20% of GDP globally, giving councils significant power to shape markets and influence supply chains.
By setting circular criteria in tenders, such as product durability, repairability, or leasing models, councils can create strong demand for circular products and services, reducing the risks associated with innovation for suppliers and pushing businesses to adopt more sustainable models.
Circular procurement does not just reduce environmental impact – it also drives local innovation, supports green jobs in repair and remanufacturing, and aligns with broader policy goals. Changes to the Procurement Act (2023) also mean that, by law, socioeconomic environmental factors must be considered when making procurement decisions.
Councils that embed these principles into procurement policies, event planning, and even housing and highway design can accelerate the transition toward a more circular economy from the inside out.
From flashy to fundamental
While the ‘flashier’ parts of the waste hierarchy – reuse schemes, zero-waste initiatives, citizen-led circular solutions may appear more aspirational than achievable, they offer real potential for systemic change and, crucially, reflect a shift in public expectation to be part of the solution.
Local authorities have a unique opportunity to channel this momentum, as demonstrated in the case study of Bristol. By stepping beyond their traditional service remit and embracing their role as enablers of behaviour change, councils can become key players in building a circular economy from the ground up.
If we are to build a future where waste and resources circulate efficiently, we must stop starting the story at the kerbside.
Real progress will come not only from marginal gains in recycling rates, but from helping people make different decisions long before the bin comes into view, and local authorities have both the mandate and the means to lead this critical transformation.