Waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) producer compliance scheme, REPIC, has launched a new campaign to promote the message of recycling end–of-life electronics to a younger audience.
The ‘Responsible Recycling’ campaign, launched yesterday (6 February), aims to encourage the public to dispose of household WEEE at ‘dedicated local recycling centres’ rather than in the waste bin.
The campaign specifically targets young people, and offers a range of educational tools and information resources for teachers, pupils, and local authorities to download via its dedicated micro-site.
As well as educational worksheets, the website also hosts an interactive game and animated video content which REPIC says ‘brings the “responsible recycling” message and characters to life’.
The campaign is also fronted by two mascots (an animated robot, ‘R3P1C’, and his battery sidekick, ‘Amp’), who distil the concept of recycling WEEE into ‘uncomplicated terms’ in the hopes of appealing to a young audience. From Easter, the two mascots will travel to schools across the country to promote the campaign.
All REPIC members (as well as REPIC’s collection and treatment partners) are being urged to promote the campaign by hosting links to the ‘Responsible Recycling’ website in the hopes to extend the campaign’s reach.
CEO of REPIC, Dr Phillip Morton, said: “This campaign focuses on what it all boils down too- the person who discards their old EEE. Because without active participation from the public, WEEE as an industry would not exist in today’s form.
“Through creating a channel for direct dialogue with consumers for the first time, REPIC members are reinforcing their own environmental responsibility while raising awareness for the cause at large. We are all mindful that the UK has steep collection targets to hit by 2019 and need to be as proactive as we can in order to achieve these.”
This new consumer campaign follows on from the implementation of the new Waste Electrical And Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations 2013 (which came into force on 1 January). REPIC has said it hopes the new rules will ‘‘incentivise all stakeholders to collect greater volumes of WEEE, bringing the UK closer to its EU target collection rate of either 65 per cent relative to the EEE sold, or 85 per cent of WEEE generated by 2019’.
Find out more about REPIC’s ‘Responsible Recycling’ campaign.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
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