State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

How a Simple Sticker Can Nudge Residents Into Compliance

Route Fifty: Students at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy partnered with the city of Fayetteville, North Carolina's Environmental Services Department on a behavioral economics experiment aimed at improving residents’ compliance with garbage collection.

The city began phasing in automated side-loader garbage trucks, nicknamed “one-armed bandits,” in the past few years because only one operator is needed, as opposed to two or three people on rear-loader trucks.

But many residents still aren’t aware they need to change the way they position garbage bins on by the curb to account for the trucks’ mechanical arms, and almost 50 percent of single-family homes in the city are rental—meaning regular homeowner turnover.

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