Food for thought: How Cornwall Council is taking a carrot-not-stick approach to reducing household food waste

Cornwall households have put out over 31,000 tonnes of leftovers, carrot tops and teabags since we first started collecting their food waste for recycling three years ago.

But we know it’s better for everyone, financially and environmentally, if we can help households reduce food waste in the first place.

Why Cornwall needed a different kind of food waste campaign

Household food waste isn’t just a climate and waste management issue - it’s a cost-of-living issue as too. WRAP has done some useful maths for its Love Food Hate Waste campaign and worked out that food waste costs the average UK family of four £1,000 a year.

Preventing food waste takes some time and skill, as well as confidence that the effort you put in is making a difference.

Research by the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) tells us people tend to waste food not because they don’t care about the environment, but because they have busy, pressured lives.

Some lives are more pressured than others. There are people in Cornwall facing significant barriers to health and to financial and social wellbeing related to low wages, high housing costs and rural isolation.

Less food waste in the bin means more money left in the household and Council budgets for other, unavoidable expenses.

Food for thought draws on WRAP audience insights and behaviour change frameworks like EAST (easy, attractive, social and timely), including:

• Telling people they should reduce food waste isn’t effective.
• People respond better to clear incentives, well-timed prompts, and small, do‑able actions.
• Money-saving messages cut through far more effectively than environmental appeals alone.

Cornwall therefore needed a friendly, practical offer that would feel easy and helpful during a challenging economic period.

A bite-sized behaviour change journey

Food for thought draws on the advice of WRAP’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign and its audience insight. It takes its shape, messaging and tone from behaviour change frameworks like EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social and Timely), nudge theory and habit stacking.

Instead of overwhelming residents with lots of actions in no particular order, Food for thought breaks behaviour change into eight weekly email tips. Each email invites people to make one small change to the way they shop, cook or store food and includes:

• A single tip like meal and portion planning

• A tool such as a shopping list template or freezer label
• A ‘why it works’ explainer grounded in WRAP research
• A short survey link, so residents can rate each tip and suggest improvements

The content is delivered as an automated email journey, which makes the campaign more responsive and measurable than a static web page. We can monitor and iterate the content based on:

• the number of people opening each email
• which links or tools they click
• whether people progress through all eight tips or stop part‑way
• which messages or incentives perform best
• how different groups behave, as the audience can be segmented and the content tailored based on household or shopping habits

Most importantly, the email journey allows two-way interaction. Every tip includes a quick survey link so people can tell us how useful it was and suggest improvements, which means:

• live feedback from real households
• ability to spot quickly if something isn’t working
• compare which tips get the strongest responses and which need revising

Together, the eight changes could help residents save up to £83 a month - a compelling motivator reflected throughout the campaign’s creative assets.

Engagement, media interest and community conversation

Early response has shown public appetite. A single story in our Stay in Touch resident email newsletter generated almost 1,000 sign-ups during Food Waste Action Week, showing that the message resonates when framed through savings and simple changes.

The campaign has also attracted external attention. BBC Radio Cornwall approached Cornwall Council for a positive feature after a producer signed up and liked the approach. This illustrates the campaign’s ability to connect with the public conversation around rising food costs, household budgets and practical environmental actions.

Building a long-term movement, not a one-off message

Food for thought is designed to grow over time. The eight-week email journey provides a foundation for future content. Planned developments includes digital advertising, community engagement pilots and collaboration with Healthy Cornwall on an Eat Well, Spend Less Guide.

We also want to build stronger feedback loops through signup monitoring, conversion tracking and potential doorstep pilots ensuring the campaign continues to evolve based on real resident experience.

A supportive approach

With Food for thought, we’re aiming for a win-win: the immediate benefit for householders of helping them save money, and the longer-term benefit for Cornwall of reducing waste and supporting climate goals.

Sign up at cornwall.gov.uk/foodforthought