Bank of Ireland introduced new bins with a fun “Recycle Right” game
How Bank of Ireland increased waste segregation knowledge by over 50%
Introduction
In April 2025, Bank of Ireland (BOI) engaged its people in waste-segregation through “Recycle Right”, the customised waste game by Bold Donut. The following is a summary of the results and findings.
About Bank of Ireland (BOI)
The sustainability team at Bank of Ireland wanted a new way to engage and activate their colleagues on waste-segregation to aid the introduction of new bins and help to reduce waste contamination.
They were looking for something that was:
Challenging and fun for colleagues
Scalable - could be rolled out to all colleagues
Gamified with behaviour change focus
They were referred to Bold Donut who were able to customise their waste game to meet the needs of both large offices and branches and run a 3-week campaign to coincide with their Sustainability Week and the introduction of new bins.
What the BOI Sustainability Team said
“We introduced new compost bins to help reduce contamination of our recycling waste in April and to coincide with this, we worked with Bold Donut’s customised waste game with the aim to engage and educate colleagues on waste-segregation. We did this over a 3 week campaign launching the game in our annual Sustainability week to ensure it gained much attention. We are delighted that players of the game increased their waste knowledge by an average of 52% and since then we have seen a reduction on the levels of waste-contamination which has been aided by the game as well as other activities.”
The BOI Recycle Right Game
Recycle Right game introduction screen
Recycle Right drag-and-drop knowledge quiz
Recycle Right gameplay (sorting puzzle)
Recycle Right story slide
Meaningful Engagement
The aim of “Recycle Right” was to engage and educate BOI colleagues in proper waste segregation to help reduce contamination.
Engagement is measured by the numbers of people who visited the game page, logged into play, played at least one level and then passed at least 2 levels (and earned a star).
Of all the players that logged in to play the games, 85% played at least one level and at least 59% played at least two levels. BOI employees were given a collective target of 1500 stars and together nearly doubled it by playing and winning a total of 2,855 stars.
Increase in Learning
Players of “Recycle Right” increased their waste knowledge by an average of 52.4%. Increase in knowledge is calculated by comparing the results of the baseline “knowledge quiz” before gameplay and “assessment quiz” results afterwards.
Average baseline score of 67.9%
Average assessment level score of 96.2%
Players in both the admin sites and branches and hubs who played the full game increased their waste knowledge by an average of 57.8% and 43.6% respectively.
Waste Data
The purpose of the baseline level is to establish the players baseline knowledge and feed this back to the BOI Sustainability team to use in their future campaigns and waste communications. The BOI Waste game highlighted five waste items by featuring them in both the baseline and assessment levels.
Recycle Right drag-and-drop knowledge quiz
Below are two example insights from data collected through the Recycle Right game:
35% of players tried to put a disposable coffee cup in recycling when it should go in general waste
Around 50% of players thought an empty crisp packet goes in general waste rather than recycling (in Ireland soft plastics can often be recycled)
Overall Results
The aim of the “Recycle Right” waste game was to engage and activate BOI employees on waste-segregation to aid the introduction of new bins and help to reduce waste contamination.
Key figures from the game as featured as part of BOI Sustainability week in April 2025 are:
Playtime - Players were actively engaged in recycling and waste segregation for an average of 2 minutes 9 seconds per session - making it the perfect solution for quick and easy to digest learning
Engagement - 85% of people who logged into play the game played at least one level
Learning - Players of the game increased their waste knowledge by an average of 52%
Contamination reduction – The Sustainability team has reported that the waste game along with other efforts have helped to reduce the levels of waste-contamination
Final notes and acknowledgements
Thank you to Emer Cooney, Sustainability Manager at Bank of Ireland and her team for all their insights and cooperation.
About Bold Donut’s games
Our games are built using a behaviour change framework (Octalysis) and are modelled on highly successful mobile games (that’s the fun factor). Players get instant and satisfying feedback on key behaviours, see their peers also taking action, and repeat climate positive actions — all while they are having fun and learning something practical!
If you want to see one of our games in action why not start with our waste game demo.
Happy sorting!