Promoting the recycling of small electricals

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1 1 Case study: Colour-separated collection of glass for re-melt Case study Kent and Leicestershire councils

2 WRAP Case study: On average UK households buy nearly 18kg of small electrical items each year. Many of these replace or upgrade existing items which are then either discarded or stored in the home. It is not generally recognised that these items can be recycled and only 3.2kg per household are currently collected. With Landfill Tax rising to 48 per tonne in 2010, diverting this waste from landfill is very cost effective. The Recycle Now campaign has developed a suite of materials to promote electrical items which were successfully piloted by 12 local authorities in Active promotion of the opportunities to recycle small can increase collection rates significantly and save on landfill costs. to your local council recycling centre cl e Find do out tw which h cals you can recycle ean and where at recyclenow.com cleno com Bought/year/household Collected/year/household Difference Saving if 40% collected (based on cost of landfill tax only) Saving based on 30,000 households To help you run your own small recycling campaign, a suite of researched and tested materials has been developed which can be branded with your council logos including: posters; leaflets; pull-up banners; bus backs; radio adverts; newspaper adverts; and adshells. All the materials can be downloaded free from All WEEE 48.9kg 17.9kg 31.0kg ,880 Small WEEE 17.5kg 3.2kg 14.3kg ,280 Outlined in the following pages are two examples of how the materials can be used to great effect as part of a local campaign. to your local council recycling centre * Have your fairy lights lost their sparkle? Got any unwanted small lying around at home? Next time you re off to your local recycling centre, don t forget to bring them with you. recyclenow.com a *Find out what you can recycle and where at recyclenow.com and remember, don t bin it. Bring it! Above, toolbox. Example 1: bus back. Example 2 : poster. PAGE 2

3 WRAP Case study: Transforming perceptions about recycling in Kent Handling waste and recycling in the UK s most populated county presents its own challenges. Kent has 1.6 million permanent residents but its proximity to Europe only 35 minutes away means these numbers frequently fluctuate. Despite the challenge this could present, was keen to take up the challenge of piloting a campaign from Recycle Now to increase waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). It proved remarkably successful, boosting the recycling rate by 43%. (KCC) works closely with its partners to manage over 800,000 tonnes of rubbish produced by 546,000 households each year. Its overall recycling rate is around 40%, and it aims to always manage waste in ways that are environmentally friendly, sustainable and good value for money. Pro-recycling campaigns are generally well received by Kent residents; the has previously run Love Food Hate Waste and home composting drives, but decided last year to focus for the first time on small waste electrical and electronic goods or WEEE. To start the campaign in January 2009, the 12 district councils were sent posters, banners and leaflets. Provided by Recycle Now, these marketing materials were used in their offices and raised awareness of the importance and ease of recycling WEEE within their area. Communications to the public included using the county s cricket fixtures list to advertise the message about small WEEE recycling and promote all of Kent s 18 Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) as WEEE-recipients. Information was also posted on the KCC website with key statistics about recycling of electrical goods in the county. Humorous radio adverts using a catchy rhyme to highlight typical items that can be recycled and where they can be taken were aired on the two main commercial radio stations in Kent Invicta FM and KMFM. Our current recycling rate is good but we can do more, on average, each household in Kent will produce about 740 kg of waste annually. Many products are still discarded as waste when they could be recycled or composted, but our residents need to look beyond the normal glass, paper and cans. Belinda Moran Projects Delivery Manager, The best thing about the campaign was its relatively low cost; we relied heavily on partner sponsorship and support so our main input was staff time. Belinda Moran Projects Delivery Manager, PAGE 3

4 WRAP Case study: While these activities started to raise awareness, the team wanted to create a highlight to give the campaign a boost. They decided to arrange a visually impactful stunt which people could relate to and opted to use a local carnival in August as the platform. The team recruited a local boys grammar school about the possibility of building a giant sculpture from waste electrical items, and they came up with the idea of a transformer made out of small WEEE. The students designed and built the structure themselves over a period of weeks, using waste borrowed from a local reprocessor. The boys used the carnival (which was attended by 15,000 people) to launch the sculpture and won first prize for a float jointly entered in the name of the school and KCC. KCC supported this activity by hosting a stand at the carnival, on which they ran a competition sponsored by a number of Kent reprocessors. They filled a display cabinet with WEEE to show the broad range of goods that could be recycled and decorated the stand with campaign leaflets and pull-up banners. To attract visitors to the stand the team set up a competition using questions that could be answered by looking at the stand display; the prizes on offer also delivered a consistent message vouchers for a local electrical retailer so old items could be replaced for new after recycling of course! Since completing this phase of the campaign, small WEEE recycling levels in Kent have risen by 43%. The team is weighing up the results of the campaign and embarked on a second phase in autumn 2009, running through to spring They will take the message out further during this to large local employers (eg several large international pharmaceutical companies), public sector organisations (eg NHS, police) and colleges and universities. In the meantime, Belinda and her team are delighted with the response so far. This first phase was really powerful in identifying the most effective ways of changing attitudes and raising awareness. We re looking at areas with high footfall, including public spaces provided by KCC and large employers. We d also like to target women aged because they are least aware of what can be recycled at a HWRC. Between April and December last year, families in Kent recycled 3,139 tonnes of electrical waste which was the equivalent of 4 irons, 11 hairdryers or 51 electric toothbrushes per household. The raw materials used to make these would be put to new uses. For example a typical iron contains enough steel to make 13 food cans. PAGE 4

5 WRAP Case study: recycling habit in Leicestershire Leicestershire already has a great track record in promoting recycling; its rate is well above the national average at 52% and the county council team responsible for waste and recycling have recently supported the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign by running their own local drive to cut food waste. However, they decided late last year to take up the challenge of piloting a campaign led by Recycle Now to promote the collection of small waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) for recycling.with incredible results. Leicestershire residents have traditionally been receptive to messages about recycling with previous activities in the past focusing on paper, metal and glass, but more recently, a pilot to divert food waste from landfill. So when the opportunity arose for the Waste Management team to implement a pilot campaign into recycling small WEEE items, the timing seemed right. Every one of the county council's 14 Recycling and Household Waste Sites already take WEEE items for processing and with a number of retailer take back schemes also in operation, all that remained was to raise awareness with the public. A roadshow campaign was the first step it launched in March 2009 at a Leicester shopping centre on the outskirts of the city, supported by posters and leaflets and a dedicated website. The roadshow attracted significant media attention, especially from county-wide daily newspaper The Leicester Mercury. The launch was also boosted by internal communications via the council intranet, newsletters and s to staff. In addition, it was covered on the county council website and in the residents magazine. There were three key messages to communicate to the public: what could be recycled anything with batteries, a power lead or charger; what materials the item could be turned into; and where to take them to be recycled. The team used campaign leaflets and pull-out banners on the stand, and also had a table of small WEEE items to demonstrate what could be recycled. The council calculated that between April and December 2008, families in Leicestershire had recycled 1,054 tonnes of electrical waste the equivalent of three irons, eight hairdryers or 38 electric toothbrushes per household. PAGE 5

6 WRAP Case study: The roadshows continued through the spring, visiting seven different locations all over the county including major market towns. The leaflets were also distributed throughout Leicestershire libraries and information centres. The results soon started to show with a jump of 50% in recycling small WEEE in April over the previous month, with over 200 tonnes of electrical products collected. Feedback from the public attending the roadshows revealed some interesting behaviour. They said that while they would often recycle mobile phones, televisions, computers and vacuum cleaners, smaller and less valuable items such as electric toothbrushes, hairdryers, electronic toys and hedge-clippers were rarely recycled and often ended up being thrown out with the household rubbish. These insights served the team well when, following the initial campaign launch, they started to look at how they could further drive awareness and switched attention to the Recycling and Household Waste Sites. They decided to offer a special incentive to encourage the public to take their small WEEE items for recycling. So in July, every resident taking a small electrical item to one of the 14 Recycling and Household Waste Sites was given a scratchcard. A variety of prizes were on offer including top prizes of holiday vouchers worth 200 donated by the Producer Compliance Scheme Repic, plus wind-up torches and eco-friendly reusable bags. Adshell adverts were put up on site to promote the campaign, but regular photoshoots of the prizewinners also attracted significant media attention from the local weekly papers and well as the Mercury. This helped to keep the issue front of mind for the public. At the end of the campaign, Leicestershire were delighted to achieve more than a 45% increase overall in small WEEE collections. The staff at the Recycling and Household Waste Sites had been specially briefed to look out for WEEE, and were able to separate out the intake effectively. The best thing about the campaign was its low cost the main cost being staff time yet high effectiveness. The team is now looking forward to how WEEE collections can be further increased in future campaigns. We found the media were really interested in the stories coming out of the campaign and we had coverage across print and broadcast media. Derek Goodenough, Waste Disposal and Treatment Manager "The campaign was a great way of encouraging residents to recycle old or unwanted electrical appliances such as toasters and kettles. People are bringing more items to their local sites and we'd like to thank them for their hard work and encourage them to keep on recycling." Tony Kershaw, the County s Cabinet Member for Waste Management PAGE 6

7 WRAP Case study: The Recycle Now campaign offers a range of materials that can be used to deliver successful awareness raising activity locally, increasing the tonnage of broken and unwanted collected for recycling. Visit to see the full range of free materials available for you to adapt and use. While steps have been taken to ensure its accuracy, WRAP cannot accept responsibility or be held liable to any person for any loss or damage arising out of or in connection with this information being inaccurate, incomplete or misleading. This material is copyrighted. It may be reproduced free of charge subject to the material being accurate and not used in a misleading context. The source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged. This material must not be used to endorse or used to suggest WRAP s endorsement of a commercial product or service. For more details, please refer to our Terms & Conditions on our website Waste & Resources Action Programme The Old Academy 21 Horse Fair Banbury, Oxon OX16 0AH Tel: Fax: info@wrap.org.uk Helpline freephone PAGE 7