TRiFOCAL is calling upon cities across the EU to support its campaign ‘Small Change Big Difference’, in a bid to spread the word and raise awareness around food waste prevention, recycling of inedible food and healthy sustainable eating.

About TRiFOCAL

TRiFOCAL is a €3.2million three-year project funded by the LIFE programme of the European Commission. It is delivered by project partners WRAP, the London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) and Groundwork London. The project started in 2016 and pilot delivery in London targeting householders, businesses, communities and schools runs until March 2019, with learnings shared with 8 European cities as part of its replication programme. TRiFOCAL is actively seeking to engage with at least 2 more European cities to join the replication programme and deliver pilot activity in 2019, drawing on the lessons and materials developed in London.

Like many cities, London is facing several social and economic challenges over the coming years. To put these issues into perspective, it is estimated that London households throw away 910,000 tonnes of food each year, of which 640,000 tonnes could have been eaten, and that Londoners are spending a whopping £1.4 billion each year on buying food, with councils paying around £50 million to dispose of it when it becomes waste. Not only is this waste environmentally damaging, but each Londoner could save up to £70 a month by changing the way we shop, prepare, store, eat and dispose of our food.

Small changes make a big difference

TRiFOCAL launched its citizen campaign ‘Small Change, Big Difference’ in September 2017. It provides unique, engaging activities across London, through advertising, events, social media and legacy content. The project team is working with eight London boroughs – Bexley, Hackney, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Merton, Sutton and Tower Hamlets – to deliver localised campaigns over three months to test the most effective interventions and messages to encourage positive behaviour change.

Sally Hollyhead, from the ‘Small Change, Big Difference’ campaign, comments: “We want to help everyone in our amazing capital city make small, achievable changes that will make a big difference to their health, pockets and the planet. We’re all busy people. That’s why we’re concentrating on small changes – like freezing a loaf of bread to save it from going off, using your potato skins to make compost or buying the occasional pack of frozen veg instead of fresh – to help make that difference, one small change at a time.”

Get involved

Is your city introducing a new food waste collection or making service changes? Looking for new ways to engage with residents? Or want to tackle food waste issues with local businesses, schools and communities? This could be a good opportunity for new communications to your residents. TRiFOCAL is looking to roll out the campaign across the EU now, so get in touch if you would like to extend ‘Small Change Big Difference’ to your city. The campaign’s range of initiatives and adaptability means that it can fit well with city food strategies or waste plans and complement existing campaign activity. The campaign materials are available on the TRiFOCAL resource bank http://resources.trifocal.eu.com/ where we are sharing learnings and successes from the London pilots as well as the EU replication cities.

If you are interested to roll out the TRiFOCAL approach in your city, please contact us at TRiFOCAL@wrap.org.uk

If you would like additional support with the development of your own campaign, teaching schools, communities and consumers how to make small, achievable changes that will make a big difference to their health, pockets and the planet, the TRiFOCAL team has a suite of training options that can be tailored to your needs and offered to replication cities as part of the TRiFOCAL LIFE funding.

If you would like to work with TRiFOCAL or for more information on the project, please get in touch.

Contact: Katharine Fox, Project Manager, WRAP

Email: TRiFOCAL@wrap.org.uk

Telephone: 01295 819900