The Waste & Resources Action Programme’s (WRAP) Recycle Now campaign has launched a suite of communications materials to help local authorities, brands and retailers allay consumer confusion on how to recycle different types of plastic.
Running until the end of November, the ‘Recycle Plastic – Fantastic!’ campaign, part of WRAP’s recently-relaunched Recycle Now campaign, aims to help its partners to expand consumer knowledge of the variety of plastic packaging items that can be recycled and to clarify what should be going into their recycling containers.
Details of campaign
WRAP has been supporting the national recycling campaign Pledge 4 Plastics since it was established in September last year. The campaign is led by member-based plastics recycling organisation RECOUP, which aims to ‘tackle the serious issue of plastic packaging recycling in the UK’.
For the next three months, the two campaigns will come together to produce aligned communications activity and ‘a consistent set of messages and visuals’.
More than 50 communications materials including digital resources, posters, banners and leaflets have been designed specifically for plastic recycling.
These materials can be customised by partners taking part in the campaign to include specific information regarding local plastic recycling collection.
The ‘Recycle Plastic – Fantastic!’ theme suggests some key elements that WRAP says should be reinforced in consumers to improve the quantity and quality of plastic recycling. These elements include the transformation of recycled plastics into new items, the benefits of recycling plastic, and what consumers can recycle locally to resolve confusion around bottles; pots, tubs and trays; and plastic film.
Throughout the campaign period, WRAP will also be supporting three local authorities selected through its ‘Increasing recycling through local communication fund’ – Kent Resource Partnership, Norfolk Waste Partnership and West Sussex Partnership – to deliver local plastic recycling campaigns on the ground.
The three-month campaign is part of a project that will see WRAP focus on a different dry recyclable material each quarter. A paper and card campaign will follow from December 2015 to February 2016, with a metal and glass campaign running from March to May 2016.
Materials ‘provide clarification’ and ‘dispel myths’
Marcus Gover, Director at WRAP, said: “Using the communication materials is a real opportunity to deliver some targeted communications campaigns around a material stream we know causes confusion with consumers.
“We want people to recycle plastic as it’s a fantastic useable resource. We’re asking partners to get involved by downloading the new materials and use them in their own plastic recycling campaigns. The materials have been created to provide clarification, dispel myths and help consumers get a better understanding of what they should be recycling.”
See the range of plastic recycling materials available through WRAP’s resource library.
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