New Tally Who Dis?! Introducing our Trash Survey Updates

Images by Oli Hutchinson. Words by Jasmine Scott-Dickins.

You may have spotted our brand-spanking new survey sheet and been curious as to why these changes are being made - 'if it’s not broken don’t fix it' - right?

These survey changes have been informed by research into citizen science accuracy - essentially how do we improve the resources we give our volunteers to capture data on single-use pollution, to help them provide strong surveys.

Volunteers have made significant contributions to many scientific publications on the effects of plastic pollution, marine debris tracking and ecosystem monitoring. However, citizen science generated data is regularly left out of peer-reviewed research because it's seen as being less accurate! We know this isn't the case, because our volunteers (hey, that's you) do an incredible job, day in and out, surveying the trash they love in places they love.

It does mean that it's super important for organisations like ours to regularly update our resources, so we're always using methods that lead not only to strong trash data, but to a positive experience and meaningful contribution for our volunteers too.

Delve below to discover the changes we've made to our Trash Survey, why we've made them, and get a glimpse into the work Research Officers like me do too!

Trash Categories: Making Trash Types Simple

The eagle-eyed among you will have spotted useful category additions to try and reduce some ambiguity of where common but very specific single-use pollution items go - like plastic straw wrappers, ring pulls, water bottle labels and card takeaway food packaging and wooden utensils. We know volunteers find heaps of these items, but it's not always clear where to put them in your Survey. Though it might seem like we're getting in the nitty gritty, being specific improves our data, and makes the process simpler for you too.

We've created a new Household & Domestic and Hazardous / Unhygienic Section to cover a broad range of single-use pollution types that are sometimes difficult to categorise - often because we don't want to pick them up! This section is particularly useful if you tally as you go on your trail clean.

Our friends at the Marine Conservation Society categorise single-use pollution by material - we do it by how items are used before they become rubbish. Though this helps us understand the behaviour of trail users, it gets a bit confusing in the miscellaneous section. So, we've amended this part of the Trash Survey to reflect materials - so even if it's not clear what an item is used for, you can still count it.

We've also reduced some areas of the Tally so you're less likely to feel an item can fit into multiple areas - we've been known to find a running gear, and not be sure if it should go in 'outdoor activity' or 'textiles'! Our new event and activity categories encompass all the sport related equipment that may be found left on the trails.

While a lot of these changes might be simple or even go unnoticed relatively simple, making it easier to categorise items as accurately as possible is the best way we can support you, our volunteers, to produce robust data. This means it's more accurate, and we can more confidently offer the insights it produces to call for policy change, like the deposit return scheme (DRS) and extended producer responsibility (EPR).

Helping Us to Hold Brands Accountable

Categorising the branded items might at first seem simple, but you quickly get caught up in the consuming web of parent and daughter brands, sister brands, a house of brands... It’s a whole messy family relationship!

We've tried to find a balance between this complex spiderweb and ensuring the Trash Survey process is engaging and education. You'll now find the brand section is full of logos to help make categorisation speedy and simple, while the new format also helps to expose how just a few main brands are responsible for so much of the single-use pollution out there.

Quite the eye opener!

We hope you've enjoyed this tour of our new Tally Sheet - don't forget to tell us what you think in the comments!