United Kingdom 
United States 
Deutschland 
France 
España 
Italia 
International 
Business challenge
Fost Plus is driving force behind the circular packaging economy in Belgium. As a non-profit organization founded in 1994, the organization promotes, coordinates and finances the collection, sorting, and recycling of household packaging waste. Working with almost 5,000 member companies to improve packaging design, increase reuse, and reduce litter while driving innovation across the recycling value chain.
A key challenge is understanding how Belgian consumers sort and recycle beverage packaging, specifically plastic bottles and cans, across different consumption moments in a out-of-Home context. Traditional views of recycling behavior often overlook the influence of context, making it difficult to identify where collection systems underperform and where the greatest opportunities for improvement lie.
Solution & research results
YouGov shopper insights connected the full consumer journey – from purchase to consumption to disposal – to quantify how beverage packaging becomes waste across different real-world contexts.
This enabled Fost Plus to move beyond aggregate recycling figures and understand the behavioral drivers behind them.
The research delivered:
· Behavioral mapping of recycling practices across different consumption contexts, including in-home and out-of-home usage.
· Segmentation of disposal behavior by packaging type, usage occasion, and consumer habits.
· Volume estimation of plastic bottle consumption across beverage categories, formats, and distribution channels.
· Consumption journey analysis linking needs, usage, and disposal behaviors to identify distinct recycling patterns.
A key insight from the research was that recycling effectiveness varies significantly by consumption context, with out-of-home occasions presenting a disproportionate share of missed recycling opportunities due to reduced access to collection infrastructure.
Business outcome / impact
The YouGov shopper insights approach delivered actionable, decision-ready intelligence for Fost Plus across three dimensions:
Measurement:
Improved estimation of plastic bottle and can volumes, enabling more accurate modelling of waste streams across Belgium.
Understanding:
Clear visibility of how, where, and why consumers recycle (or fail to recycle) beverage packaging, grounded in real behavioral and contextual drivers.
Activation:
Evidence-based prioritization of collection strategies, helping Fost Plus target the behaviors and locations with the highest potential impact.
As a result, Fost Plus aligned its recycling strategies with real consumer behavior, enabling more effective and targeted collection interventions across Belgium. This contributed to 840 Kt of household waste recycled in 2025.
These strategies are now grounded in a clear understanding of the key drivers of (in)correct recycling behavior, including consumption context, location, and demographic factors such as age, region, urbanization level, education, and gender.
Working with YouGov gave us valuable insights into the factors that influence sorting behavior – or the lack of it – in out-of-home settings. Thanks to YouGov research, we gained a clear, fact-based understanding that now helps us refine our strategy to improve the collection of beverage packaging in Belgium.
Throughout the project, the YouGov team guided us every step of the way, from shaping the initial approach to organizing the research, analyzing the data, and drawing meaningful conclusions. Their open, constructive collaboration ensured that our initial idea evolved into a well-founded and actionable outcome, providing Fost Plus with solid direction to further optimize our strategy.