Embargoed for publication until 00.01am Monday 21st September
It’s time to put “recycling’s most wanted” where they belong • Kensington and Chelsea Council partners with innocent drinks and environmental charity Hubbub to create juicy new recycling communications.
• Residents asked to help catch “recycling’s most wanted” to boost recycling rates in a London first.
• Campaign aims to improve the recycling rate in one of the most difficult boroughs to capture recycling in London.
A playful new campaign will help West London residents recycle more and better as Kensington and Chelsea Council teams up with Kensington-based innocent drinks and environmental charity Hubbub this Recycle Week 1 (21-27th September 2020). As people spend more time at home, we’re generating more waste than ever before, including an average of 128 pieces of plastic per household2. This creates a particular problem in densely populated boroughs, such as Kensington and Chelsea. Over the last 3 years, K&C has achieved an overall increase in its recycling rate of just under 3% (2.9%). Now standing at 28.6% 3, this is ahead of most other boroughs with similar housing composition, but there is still room to do even better. Polling4 shows that 1 in 3 Londoners find recycling information difficult to understand, with less than half (45%) saying they’re confident about what can be recycled and more than half (51%) agreeing that clearer information would encourage them to recycle more. From this week, residents of the borough will see messages on posters, recycling bags andleaflets, digital displays and recycling trucks asking them to help catch “recycling’s most wanted”. These include items such as drinks cans, yogurt pots and bathroom plastics that belong in the recycling, but sometimes manage to escape.
Recycling can easily be spoiled by food and drink, meaning that even if items are put in the right bin, they are too dirty to be recycled. Residents are being urged to “wash their bits” to reduce pressure on the collection crew who often have to make decisions on whether items are fit for recycling. Vaughan MacIntosh, Chargehand/Loader for the Council’s waste collector SUEZ, said: “It’s great that the new campaign will help people know what they can put in their recycling and what should go in the rubbish. We work hard to recycle as much as possible, from pulling-up and separating recycling and waste bags at the kerbside, to spotting and removing items that can’t be recycled during collection and loading. We remove as many items as we can, when it’s safe and practical to do so, but it’s challenging. Sometimes the contamination is hidden, or it is wet and dirty, and spoils the rest of the clean recycling. It would be a great help if people separate their recycling at home correctly.” Cllr Cem Kemahli, Lead Member for Environment at Kensington and Chelsea Council said: “I hope residents connect with this fun campaign and it makes recycling at home simpler. Our waste collectors and sorters have made heroic efforts during the pandemic to provide an essential service that we couldn’t manage without. We can all make their jobs easier by recycling the most wanted items. “Getting recycling right contributes to our ambition for a cleaner and greener Kensington and Chelsea with less waste, better air quality and a carbon neutral borough by 2040.” Louise Stevens, Head of Circular Economy at innocent drinks, said: “We’re thrilled to be a part of this campaign, and we feel this could be a breakthrough when it comes to recycling rates. We got a few of our talented writers and designers on the case and we’re looking forward to supporting our neighbours in their recycling efforts.” Gavin Ellis, Co-Founder and Director of Hubbub said: “Lockdown completely transformed the way we live and work, including our recycling habits and we know from our research that 43% 5 of people are more concerned about plastic pollution than before Covid-19. At a hugely challenging time for local authorities, supporting households to recycle better is more important than ever before. We know that many people want to recycle correctly but that they’re confused about what to do with their waste and we hope this campaign will make it easier for the people of Kensington and Chelsea to do the right thing.” To find out more about the campaign and recycling guidance visit www.rbkc.gov.uk/recycling
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For more information please contact the Hubbub team at Barley Communications: Katie Raby: katie.raby@barleycommunications.co.uk 07896 553547 Laura Harrison: laura.harrison@barleycommunications.co.uk 07525 068378 Sam Williams: sam.williams@barleycommunications.co.uk 07949 607029
NOTES TO EDITORS 1. Recycle Week, now in its 17th year, is a celebration of recycling, organised by WRAP under the Recycle Now brand. 2. The Everyday Plastic Survey conducted with 500 participants April 2020. 3. Based on RBKC internal data. Has not yet been verified and published by DEFRA. 4. Polling of 2,002 adults in London conducted by Censuswide in April 2019. 5. Polling of nationally representative sample of 3,006 adults conducted by Censuswide between 3rdand 6thJuly 2020.
ABOUT RBKC has an ambition to become a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a carbon neutral borough by 2040.
ABOUT INNOCENT Launched in 1999, innocent is the UK’s favourite little healthy drinks brand. We sell natural, healthy products – smoothies in little and big bottles; smoothies and juice for kids; a refreshing range of not-from-concentrate juice and coconut water, a dairy-free range and bubbles: our lightly sparkling fruit juices. We became a B Corp back in 2018 – an independent validation of what we’ve always believed in. We joined a movement of businesses around the world that are committed to being a force for good. And doing business in a way which is better for the planet, and the people living on it. We donate 10% of profits to charity, mainly to the innocent foundation, which supports charities working all over the world so that they can help the world’s hungry. We believe that everything we make should taste good and do good too. So we try to make it easier for people to do themselves some good, and to leave the planet a little bit better than how we found it. This is reflected in everything we do, from the use of green electricity at Fruit Towers, to sourcing fruit from places that go the extra mile in terms of looking after all the people that work on the farms and the environment. We are proud to say that all our bananas come from Rainforest Alliance accredited farms.
ABOUT HUBBUB Hubbub is an award-winning charity that inspires ways of living that are good for the environment. Hubbub designs campaigns that make environmental action desirable; disrupting the status quo to raise awareness, nudge behaviours and share systems. Hubbub have transformed the approach people take towards communicating environmental issues and since 2014 they have built collaborations with over 700 organisations, from international businesses to local authorities and community groups. This includes bringing together all the major coffee cup retailers to collect and recycle 5 million coffee cups in 1 year, and 26 businesses to improve recycling on-the-go in Leeds. Hubbub designed IKEA’s ‘Live LAGOM’, the world’s biggest consumer sustainable behaviour change campaign. Hubbub also runs campaigns to reduce food waste, tackle litter and promote sustainable fashion https://www.hubbub.org.uk/ Twitter: @hubbubuk Facebook: @HubbubUK Instagram: @helloHubbub LinkedIn: Hubbub-UK