Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) has partnered with Milton Keynes Council to develop and support a project aimed at improving local recycling through education and community participation.

The ‘Recycle for Your Community’ scheme, being trialled between April and August 2013, involves select local groups and organisations from two areas of the Milton Keynes borough engaging directly with friends, family and neighbours to share information and collect ‘recycling pledges’ from households.

The trial project has been financed from a £45,000 fund from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) ‘Household Reward and Recognition Scheme’.

The scheme was first established in 2011 to enable local authorities and community organisations to reward households for positive recycling practices. Funding totalling £539,501 has now been awarded to 15 organisations for the year 2012/13.

According to Defra, the department received 60 applications for funding this year, totalling £2.25 million. Successful bids were chosen by a funding panel comprising of Defra, Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and iESE members, who conducted a “robust sifting exercise” to settle on the most deserving candidates measured by criteria including project design and delivery, net cost of attaining goals, and ability to become self-funding.

Recycling in the Community

According to CCE, six community groups from the Netherfield and Coffee Hall areas have now been recruited and have been given training to understand what happens to materials collected for recycling by their community.

After carrying out a small survey with residents on recycling, the community groups will advise residents on how they can recycle more. The groups will also encourage residents to make ‘collect pledges’ in order to further their recycling efforts.

At a later date the residents will be recontacted enabling the groups to ‘monitor progress made in relation to the local recycling services available’.

Reportedly, financial benefits of up to £1,500 will be awarded to organisations based on the number and impact of pledges. The council has also said that bonuses will be given to groups if recycling rates go up and non-recyclable refuse rates go down. For the year 2011/12, Milton Keynes Council recycled, reused or composted 53.8 per cent of its waste, sending just over 50,000 tonnes to landfill.

The scheme aims to test a number of key principles such as the power of peer-to-peer relationships and impact of pledging, the impact of financial incentives, and the impact of improved local knowledge of local collection processes.

“Encouraging friends and neighbours”

Andy Hudson, Head of Environment and Waste at Milton Keynes Council, said: “Milton Keynes Council is a pioneer in recycling and we are delighted to have teamed up with CCE to launch this ground-breaking national trial scheme.

“Local community groups are able to secure funds for their projects by encouraging their friends and neighbours to recycle more. We hope the result will be that residents in these areas have a better understanding of our recycling scheme and will contribute to raising our recycling rate further.”

Nick Brown, Recycling Associate Director of CCE, added: “We strongly believe in the power of collaboration and relationships in encouraging positive behaviour change.

“CCE is committed to improving the standards of recycling in the home, both through the collection processes available and by raising awareness amongst householders. As a local business operating in the Milton Keynes area through our manufacturing site and Cold Drinks Centre, we are particularly pleased to be supporting the council in this community focused project.”

Read more about recycling in Milton Keynes.