Industry collaborates on recycling communication workshops for local authorities
A series of five regional workshops for local authorities designed to help boost public engagement in packaging recycling kick off this week with the first event hosted by Coca Cola Enterprises in Morpeth on Thursday and further events hosted by CCE and Sainsbury’s in West Yorkshire (31 Oct) with West Midlands, Eastern and London/SE region events in the new year.
The initiative is being delivered by WRAP in partnership with CCE and Sainsbury’s with input from LARAC and the Local Government Association.
The workshops for local authority officers and their communications contractors will explore cost effective ways of using communications to increase public participation in recycling, including suggestions on working with brands and retailers to engage the public and using social media.
Louise Bowe, Head of Community Partnerships, WRAP: “Increasing packaging recycling is important to councils, brands and retailers. Communicating so householders have know-how and motivation to use services fully is essential but we recognise budgets for communications these days is tighter than ever for us all. These practical one day workshops will cover advice on cost-effective ways to engage householders to help increase recycling. We will be drawing on experience and insight in recycling communications from local authorities’ good practice coupled with useful insight from our national partners.
Nick Brown, Associate Director – Recycling, Coca-Cola Enterprises said: “Local Authorities have done a great job in recent years to put in place services to collect recyclable materials from households, resulting in a huge increase in recycling rates. To make the most of these services, we want to work closer across the sector on communications to help householders use their local service and understand what happens to the materials. We know from our consumers that some have uncertainty about recycling, not helped by a lack of visible national campaign activity. To further accelerate recycling in this country, we all need to inspire householders to recycle more. Coca-Cola Enterprises are delighted to be a part of these workshops to hear from local authority practitioners how we can help and to swap ideas”.
Paul Crewe, Sainsbury’s Head of Engineering, Sustainability, Energy said: “We’re delighted to be working in co-operation with local authorities, LGA and WRAP to help increase local recycling rates. We’re committed to reducing our impact on the environment and making recycling more convenient for our customers. We have recycling centres at hundreds of our supermarkets and we have just enhanced over 100 of these sites to improve the recycling experience for customers, enabling them to recycle a wider range of materials.”
Places on the workshops are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Full details are at http://www.wrap.org.uk/content/events-2. If you’re interested in attending one of the workshops, please contact Helen.england@wrap.org.uk to register your interest.
