The "We are curious!" awareness campaign builds on the findings of the "Clean Irchelpark" project and the improvements already achieved through the structural measures taken:
Quantification of littering in the "Clean Irchelpark" study showed that many people bring litter to the waste disposal points but deposit it outside the trash cans or containers. Much of the littering that was recorded may have originated from animals 'investigating' and scattering the litter so deposited. Unsystematic observations support this hypothesis.
Informing park visitors* about the problem of littering was associated with behavior change effects.
Unsystematic observations from 2020 and 2021 confirm that large-scale picnic littering is less frequent since the installation of a new litter container on the meadow by the lake. The littering problem now exists primarily with the litter sharks.
Aims:
Motivate park visitors to throw their waste, neatly stowed in bags and sacks, into the nearest empty trash container instead of placing it next to a full trash shark
Develop an informative poster that conveys the information with a touch of humor (cf. result psychological mechanisms - project "Clean Irchelpark").
Pilot campaign: October to November 2021.
Main campaign: April 25 to June 6, 2022. Sensitization posters were set up at 5 locations in Irchelpark. During 13 weeks, litter volume will be systematically photo-documented and evaluated at 11 litter sharks (6 intervention, 5 control points): 4 weeks without posters + 6 weeks with posters + 3 weeks without posters. There are usually 2 cleaning tours per day. On weekends, if the weather is nice, the cleaning tour is made. So more than 1700 photos are taken by the cleaning team BDI of the waste situation at the 11 waste sharks in Irchelpark. For each time photos are taken, the protective gloves have to be taken off, which substantially increases the cleaning effort.
The litter on the photos is measured and classified. Afterwards the difference between waste sharks with sensitization placard and those without placard will be statistically evaluated.
