Post by Jonathan Li

𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗮 𝗸𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀' 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁. Two weeks ago, my partner challenged me. "𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘭 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘥𝘥𝘺?" I was fairly sure Watford accepted it because I remembered checking the council guidance before. So I looked it up again. I then started comparing neighbouring councils and quickly realised that Watford appeared to be an outlier. What began as a household discussion evolved into a structured desktop review of publicly available food waste guidance across all ten #Hertfordshire local authorities. The review found that traditional #FoodWaste was communicated with a high degree of consistency across the county. Once materials moved beyond traditional food waste, the guidance became noticeably more varied. This was particularly evident for food-soiled paper, food caddy liners and compostable packaging, where differences emerged in terminology, level of detail and product-specific advice. The study does not seek to determine which approach is "right". Instead, it explores how food waste acceptance is communicated in practice and identifies where consistency, ambiguity and variation emerge under England's #SimplerRecycling reforms. This is also the first original Insight Brief published by #CompassWorks. I hope it will be the first of many. One important limitation is that this study is based entirely on a desktop review of publicly available guidance. It does not examine operational collection practices, treatment technologies or contractual arrangements behind those services. As I begin expanding this work beyond Hertfordshire, I'd genuinely welcome the opportunity to connect with people working in local government, waste management or the wider resources and waste sector. I'd be interested to understand how these desktop findings align with operational reality, where they differ, and where there may be opportunities to improve how food waste guidance is communicated. 💬 Interested in discussing the findings? https://lnkd.in/e3X5Nu6R 📚 Explore more Compass Works Insights & Research: https://lnkd.in/eyZkGrxm #CircularEconomy #Waste #WasteManagement #Sustainability