AWARE for Educating First, Enforcing Later: Evaluating resident engagement and responses to household waste education visits for bin contamination in the City of Kwinana

Avishka Jayasinghe

The wicked problem ‘waste’ is an increasing challenge in today’s world. Increasing waste diverted to landfill and kerbside bin contamination has limited the sustainable waste management and circular economy transitions within local governments in Western Australia. Despite most of the local governments operating a two/three-bin system, incorrect household waste sorting behaviours are significantly reducing the recycling quality, hence affecting the material recovery and increasing landfill dependency. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the City of Kwinana’s Accountability in Waste and Recycling Engagement (AWARE) Bin Compliance Program in improving household waste sorting behaviours through personalised face-to-face waste education interventions. The study was driven focused on four objectives: examining household understanding and willingness to change waste sorting practices, identifying the major contamination issues, exploring factors contributing to contamination behaviours, and finally, evaluating the effectiveness of the AWARE program. A mixed-methods approach was adopted, drawing on surveys administered via Microsoft Forms, Circularity Engagement Officers’ observations during household visits, contamination records from Veolia’s vehicle telematics systems- ECHO and Fleetway systems, and follow-up assessments. The study analysed 59 household educational interventions conducted between October 2025 and March 2026 across nine suburbs within the City of Kwinana. The key findings of the study revealed that 69.5 percent of households understood the interventions, while 52.7 percent of households showed no further contaminations after the initial education interventions. The common contamination issues identified were bagged waste and unacceptable plastics, which accounted for over half of contamination cases within recycling and GO bins. Further, 32.1 percent of households exhibited contamination behaviours due to a lack of awareness and misunderstanding of the City’s local waste system, highlighting the role of informational barriers in waste sorting practices. The study concludes that face-to-face, human-centered waste education interventions, paired with positive reinforcements (4.68/5 average rating on the follow-up visits conducted) can improve household waste sorting behaviours, reduce avoidable contamination and support broader circular economy and waste hierarchy principles.

AWARE for Educating First, Enforcing Later: Evaluating resident engagement and responses to household waste education visits for bin contamination in the City of Kwinana

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