Recycle Week: It’s in our Hands
Now in its 17th year, Recycle Week, driven by Recycle Now, has the aim of encouraging everyone to recycle more, share their top sustainability tips and share knowledge across a variety of different sectors. Every year the event brings together a wide audience who participate by running their own schemes and sharing top tips, attending events or even registering to become an official partner.
Every year the event grows in popularity, with last year’s Recycle Week attracting a total audience of 14.6 million through online content. In 2018, 80 brands became event partners, sharing their best recycling methods and tips for everyone to use, whilst many committed to changing business practices to make them more sustainable. This infectious spirit is what makes the event increasingly popular, with brands competing to share recycling content to their large audience of customers, a domino effect that is seeing great results.
The week has a different theme every year, although the objectives remain consistent; to encourage and influence recycling. The theme of 2018’s Recycle Week was to make the nation realise that recycling matters, using the tagline “We Do”. During the week millions got on board to showcase their “We Do” examples by communicating what they currently do to optimise recycling rates.
Having sown this seed in 2018, this year’s Recycle Week called for everyone to act on recycling. The 2019 theme was “Recycling, it’s in our own hands”, encouraging everyone start implementing changes within areas that they have full control over.
#RecycleWeekHighlights
Over the past 17 years, globally recognised brands have become official partners of Recycle Week and have run their own events. In this latest blog posting, we look more closely at some of the contributions that these brands have made to encourage recycling using their own creative content and innovative ideas:
Brewdog
BrewDog, a Scottish-based brewing company, joined Recycle Week in 2018. To support the week, BrewDog took to Twitter to share the news that they were removing plastic holders for their drinks, instead switching to a recycled alternative. They now have a 100% recyclable rate.
Innocent
A company recognised for their delicious smoothies; Innocent began supporting Recycle Week 2018 by giving customers some top tips for what their empty bottles could be turned into. The example used showed how an empty innocent bottle can be transformed into a bird feeder, rather than being thrown away.
Unilever
A globally-recognised company which owns several large brands, Unilever showed their support to Recycle Week in 2018 by pledging to make all their plastic packaging recyclable by 2025. All packaging will either be reusable, recyclable or compostable.
Marmite
Another globally-recognised brand that got onboard with Recycle Week was Marmite. Marmite ran a marketing campaign called ‘Marmite Does’. The campaign was introduced to encourage customers to recycling their Marmite jars; great way to spread awareness and make Marmite’s customers consider recycling. The brand, which is part of Unilever, sits under the same pledge of making all plastic packaging recyclable by 2025.
H&M #HMRehaul
The fashion retailer celebrated being part of Recycle Week in 2016 by encouraging their customers to hand in old or unwanted items of clothing. This global campaign promoted the “closing the loop” model, which aims to avoid waste and reuse old materials as a resource for new products. During Recycle Week, H&M encouraged customers to bring unwanted clothes into their store in exchange for a 30% discount on new items, or to simply just donate.
It isn’t just brands…
It isn’t just well-known brands that have got involved in Recycle Week. Around the country, councils, charities and many more showed their support and shared their recycling methods:
Merthry Tydfil
For the 15th Recycle Week, Merthyr Tydfil became part of the ‘We Do’ campaign, encouraging all residents to recycle more and offering up a range of top tips.. With Wales recognised as being the third best nation in the world for recycling rates, Merthyr Tydfil has championed the Recycle for Wales campaign which educates and helps the nation understand the best ways to increase recycling rates.
Cardiff Half Marathon – Run, Refuel, Recycle
This annual event raises money for many great charities, with this year (2019) it has attracted 25,000 runners. With the run taking place during Recycle Week, the half marathon has named the theme of the event “Run, Refuel, Recycle”. This year the event will partner with Brecon Carreg, with runners able to dispose of their empty water bottles in several recycling bays situated across the half marathon’s route. The water brand also has lofty recycling ambitions, aiming to produce their products using 100% recycled materials by 2025.
Recycle Now – #SpotTheSwoosh
The hosts of the event, Recycle Now, got involved by creating a competition during 2017’s “Recycling: It’s Worth It” campaign. The competition was called #SpotTheSwoosh, which involved the nation having to send in and share their pictures of recycling ‘swooshes’ found on any packaging, bins or signs. Using the hashtag #SpotTheSwoosh, entrants were given the chance to win prizes from partners of the event, such as John Lewis.
Get Involved
If you would like to be part of this great week, you can visit Recycle Now or WRAP for more information. You can either run your own scheme, attend events, or even become a partner!
Visit today for more information.
WRAP – #RecycleWeek2019
RecycleNow – #RecycleWeek2019
Or if you’d like some top tips on how to optimise recycling rates for your brand, contact Reconomy today by calling 01952 292 000 or emailing enquiries@reconomy.com