Better support or deter residential donation listings

[dnywh]

Problem

Despite it not being supported, some users are cobbling together residential donation listings by choosing the business listing type and naming it “household with excess scraps” or similar.

Here is a running list of examples:

• https://www.peels.app/listings/jT7KXFYVdzFi
• https://www.peels.app/listings/mW07U78obj3d
• https://www.peels.app/listings/it8GRwRKXGKZ

The result is confusing for visitors because the business listing types are designed with that as an assumption. For example:

Household is a business located in Town Name.

That doesn’t make much sense. So we should either better support this type of residential donor host or design better guardrails to deter them.

Pros of better supporting residential donor hosts:

• More listings means more traction and therefore (maybe) better support from local municipalities
• People who need additional organic matter (e.g. chook owners) may benefit from these hosts

Cons of better supporting residential donor hosts:

• I’m sceptical that this is an actual or common need
• I think this will discourage people reaching out to hosts, instead putting the onus on the compost hosts to ”come and get my scraps”

I’d love feedback on the below proposals, or suggestions for other ideas.

Proposals

Here are various ways we could go about better supporting and/or deterring residential hosts, and their implications:

Deter residential donors

Call it out

There is currently a two-step quiz that new hosts take to help refine their listing type. We could create a new third step—if ‘I donate scraps’ is selected on the first and ‘residential’ on the second—that explicitly calls out the situation. It could go something like this:

Sorry, we don’t accept residential donation listings on Peels. If you have scraps to drop off, try finding your nearest compost host. If you don’t see any, why not contact your local municipality to better support Peels or local composting infrastructure?

It directly addresses any would-be folks who would otherwise work around to create a fake business listing. With a fair amount of disappointment, though.

Remove donor option completely

There is currently only one legitimate business host: WasteWood Local Recycled Timber, with no pick-up enquiries (as far as I can tell). The intention was, like ShareWaste, to have a bunch of cafes and similar hospitality venues list their used-yet-valuable materials like hessian sacks or spent coffee. That hasn’t materialised.

By removing the business host type entirely, we simplify the listing creation form and make it clear that donation isn’t an option. But determined people may very well just make a regular (household) listing then, putting us back to square one, whilst also ensuring those desired cafes never join.

Better support residential donors

Split donor_residential and donor_business types. Maybe call the other existing ones host_residential and host_community to match.

Support yet encourage initiative

Upon making a residential donor listing, these new hosts could be told clearly that they should proactively contact compost hosts and make the effort to bring their scraps over. During the listing creating, fields like the Donation details could have descriptive text to remind them to consider what scraps are useful for others, not just for them to offload.

I know there is a common misconception amongst donors that they are doing hosts are favour by donating. Quite often, compost hosts are inconveniencing themselves by accepting other people’s compost, for the sake of getting other folks into the process. We should make this dynamic clear.

Additional ideas

Email follow-ups

We could email these hosts (we should really be emailing all host types) 𝑥 weeks after listing creation, if they have had no conversations started, with something like:

No reach-outs? Try contacting a local compost host near you.

Map filters

We could add host-type filtering to the map, in case things get out of hand with the residential donor types.

[dnywh]

See also #9 for more granular hosting types, which could be another solution to this problem.

[dnywh]

I received an email today from someone who has food scraps to donate but no listings nearby to drop-off to. Here’s a generalised version of what I wrote back to her, which could be more helpful than the CTA in the above Call it out:

Here are some ideas for how you could help promote Peels in your area to get more compost bins and hosts listed nearby:

Spread the word through your networks

If you know anyone involved in local gardens, sustainability groups, schools, or neighbourhood associations, they might be great contacts to help spread the word or even host a compost bin.

If you’re comfortable, you could also post in local Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats, or community noticeboards to see if anyone already composting would be open to becoming a Peels host. Even just sharing your own interest in finding a local compost drop-off spot might inspire someone to sign up.

We’ve also put together some print-off posters and flyers in the Peels promo kit, in case they’re useful for local sharing.

Contact your council or municipality

Consider contacting your local council or municipality via email, asking them to promote Peels on their waste or sustainability webpages and through any related community programs or workshops. Here’s a draft email you can copy or adapt:

Subject: Suggestion to include Peels on Council’s waste resources

Hello,

Please forward this email on to your waste and sustainability team(s).

I’m a local resident looking for better ways to manage my household food scraps. Until kerbside food scrap pickup is introduced, I’d love to see council/municipality support for community-led options like Peels, a free platform that connects people with food scraps to neighbours who compost.

Encouraging residents to use Peels could help reduce organic waste going to landfill and support local composting efforts. Several neighbouring councils already promote Peels via their waste webpages and community education programs. You can find a list of these on the Peels Councils page.

Would Council consider including Peels on your website and mentioning it in relevant workshops or newsletters?

Thank you

This bit talks about the Copywriting examples in the promo kit, which I think is a bit strange to send direct to council folks:

You can find a list of these on the Peels Councils page.

So this would require a new “Councils and municipalities” page (that is yet to exist), that would put the contents of this Copywriting examples file inline.

[Jo-Melbourne]

Interesting problem! I'd definitely be inclined more towards supporting residential donors but also encouraging them to more usefully participate (eg, as you suggest, prompting them to write to their council) - rather than deterring them.

I think it can't hurt to have anyone interested to list themselves on the site as long as it's clear what they are (eg residential donor is fine). I agree it's unlikely anyone will take them up on their offer of "come to me to collect my banana peels", but their presence on the site could, for example:

• encourage hesitant composters to set themselves up if they can see there's a need for their compost site
• encourage neighbours who want to donate to get together to find a group strategy for their food waste

I think it's true that beginner donors might think they're doing composters a favour rather than the other way around. But it won't hurt them to give it a try. I think a follow-up email is also a great idea.

I'm sure the Cafes will come to the party! Some of them will already have existing relationships formed via Sharewaste or word-of-mouth, and might not bother to sign up to Peels, but I'm sure new ones will trickle in over time. Could we do some suggested wording that could be handed out to cafes?

In terms of the email you sent to an interested donor, re "Until kerbside food scrap pickup is introduced..."
We recently DID have kerbsite food scrap pickup introduced in our suburb, and although the waste donated to my compost corner has dropped by more than half, a lot of people still do bring their food scraps to me. They like the idea of knowing exactly where their food scraps go, and/or they didn't want another big plastic bin, and/or they want to be able to collect some free finished product from time to time. I think there's a benefit to Peels (and community composting) which is above and beyond being a stop-gap until kerbside is rolled out. :-)

[dnywh]

Thanks for your help with this, @Jo-Melbourne! Well put: we can both support residential donors and encourage proactivity, which in turn has those knock-on effects: encouraging folks nearby to either set themselves up or collaborate.

Could we do some suggested wording that could be handed out to cafes?

Do you mean something like flyers that explain Peels (and how it's useful) to cafes, that are then dropped around to them? If so, any strong feelings on what the contents would be? My mind goes to pointing out:

• The possibility of less waste (which could equal lower waste hauling costs, if there is large enough adoption)
• The possibility of larger mindshare amongst locals who are keen to spend money at likeminded businesses

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...although the waste donated to my compost corner has dropped by more than half, a lot of people still do bring their food scraps to me.

Yes! I love hearing evidence of community composting still thriving despite kerbside pickup. Case studies like yours are helpful when I inevitably get asked why Peels should be supported in FOGO areas. Thanks for sharing!