Waste Awareness Wales funds marketing campaign

Recycling organisation Waste Awareness Wales has revealed it is funding a marketing campaign for a new plastics and carton recycling service in Torfaen.

The campaign, running throughout February and March, aims to raise awareness of the new service, which allows residents to recycle additional types of plastic and cartons in their black recycling box including ‘everything from yoghurt pots and bakery trays, to shampoo containers, milk bottles and drinks cartons’.

It is hoped the new scheme will boost the council’s recycling rates from 52 per cent to 70 per cent by 2025.

The marketing strategy was developed using the ‘Wales wide waste and recycling segmentation model’ developed by Waste Awareness Wales. The segmentation is said to ‘ensure that only marketing tactics that the residents are most likely to respond to and engage with are used’.

Dan Finch from Waste Awareness Wales said the organisation was “happy to support local authorities when going through service change”.

Find out more about Waste Awareness Wales.

Rochdale rolls out recycling campaign to Littleborough

A campaign to help residents put the right waste in the correct bin will be rolled out to the town of Littleborough in Rochdale between 24 March and 30 May 2014.

Residents of Littleborough will either be left a green ‘thank you’ tag (on bins with correctly sorted rubbish) by council officers or a red ‘wrong stuff, wrong bin’ tag if bins are found to be contaminated with the wrong waste. Repeat offenders could possibly face £75 fines.

The campaign message to recycle properly will be backed up by leaflets, posters, flyers, roadshows and a team visiting houses on Starring Way, Birch Road, and Halifax Road. The bin round was chosen because of the high number of rejected loads between April and December last year.

Councilor Jacqui Beswick said: “We really need to drive home the message about improving our recycling rates. By not sorting rubbish properly and sending contaminated loads to landfill, the authority is fined and this ultimately has to be paid for out of taxpayers’ money.”

The ‘Right Stuff, Right Bin’ campaign, created by the Rochdale Borough Council, was trialed by 1600 households in the boroughs of Newbold, Belfield and Wardleworth last year and reduced contamination of the mixed recycling bin by 61 per cent, and boosted recycling rates by 49 per cent.

Read more about the ‘Right Stuff, Right Bin’ campaign.

Rotherham children tackling WEEE waste

Two Rotherham schools have been rewarded for designing campaigns highlighting the importance of recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE).

Both Milton Special School and St. Bede's RC Primary were given £500 worth of vouchers to spend on ‘useful electrical items’ as their prize.

The IT Club at St Bede's was recognised for its animated film teaching people about the impacts of not recycling WEEE waste correctly, while Milton Special School wrote and recorded a parody version of ‘What Makes You Beautiful’ by boyband One Direction entitled ‘That's Why We Recycle’.

Carbon Reduction Officer for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Brad Johnson, said: “Children are becoming increasingly surrounded by electrical items at home and even in school. That is why it is so important that we help them understand what is contained within electrical equipment and the significant environmental impact they have if not disposed of in a proper manner.”

The competition was part of a campaign created by DHL Envirosolutions focusing on raising awareness of ‘the importance of recycling domestic electrical appliances’.

Take part in the WEEE disposal competition.

Birmingham City Council agrees new confidential waste contract

Birmingham City Council has appointed Printwaste Recycling and Shredding to manage its ‘confidential shredding requirements’ for the next four years.

Based in Cheltenham, Gloucester, Printwaste Recycling & Shredding is now working with the council to help ‘provide and improve’ its confidential waste destruction with the potential to service 65 sites across Birmingham, ‘as well as supporting the council’s environmental commitments’.

Printwaste will reportedly ‘help ensure’ that office paper is recycled back into office paper, and not downcycled into tissue paper or sent to landfill.

James McKay, Cabinet Member for a Green, Safe and Smart City at Birmingham City Council, said: “Any waste we landfill is an added cost to the taxpayer, so the solution offered by this contract means we avoid this and provide excellent value for money.”

Find out more about Printwaste.

Tendring’s ‘first ever’ garden waste collection service

Residents ofTendring, Essex will be able to take part in the town’s ‘first ever’ household garden waste collection from May 2014.

The new initiative, costing £50 a year, will see garden waste collected from wheelie bins over 25 fortnightly collections. Residents will need to pay an initial charge of £25 for the service, which includes the delivery of the wheelie bin.

A two-year pilot, starting in May, will begin in the CO15 postcode area, covering 19,000 residential properties and will be expanded to other areas later this year. An update will be carried out after six months to see how the initiative is progressing.

Nick Turner, a Tendring District Council Cabinet Member, said: “There has been a great deal of interest in this idea from the public ever since it was first agreed last month. This is very much us offering a new service to our residents – and it will be down to them if they want to take up that offer.”

Read more information about the council’s garden waste collection pilot.

Bournemouth Borough Council launches social media enquiry sessions

Bournemouth Borough Council will hold ‘special social media sessions’ to answer any questions residents may have regarding the council’s new food waste collection service, set to begin 3 March 2014.

Taking place on Wednesday 19 February, between 2pm and 3pm, on Twitter, and Tuesday 25 February, from 7pm until 8pm, on Facebook, the session will use the hashtag #askcaddy.

Georgina Fry, Waste and Resource Projects Manager for Bournemouth Borough Council, said: “We’re keen to help people use the new containers correctly and with any worries they have about the new service. We’ve already posted a lot of updates and answered lots of questions by social media.”

Bournemouth Borough Council’s new food waste service has been funded through a £7.1 million grant from the Department of Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Weekly Collection Support Scheme.

See further information on Bournemouth’s food waste collection.