Launch of £5 million rubbish campaign in London
23 January 2003
A £5 million, five year waste awareness campaign was launched today by GMTV presenter Fiona Phillips and children from a local London school at the Royal Festival Hall. Reth!nk Rubbish Western Riverside is a new campaign encouraging residents and organisations to help reduce the huge amount of rubbish we all produce by getting more people to recycle and buy recycled products.
Fiona Phillips said: "I think that recycling is often seen to be something done by ‘greens’ or ‘hippies’, but people need to start seeing it as a mainstream, everyday activity – as normal as putting out your rubbish. The key to getting people to recycle is to make it easy for them and that’s what this campaign will be doing.”
The campaign is a Western Riverside Waste Authority initiative within the London Boroughs of Hammersmith & Fulham, Lambeth, Wandsworth and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, delivered by Waste Watch and London Remade. It is funded by Cory Environmental through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme.
With £4.4 million, Waste Watch are running an intensive schools programme, together with large-scale advertising and PR activities and are working with local councils and community groups to help increase recycling. They have commissioned MORI and the Open University to evaluate the impact of the campaign on resident awareness and behaviour.
Pre-campaign research already undertaken shows that 85% of residents think recycling is worthwhile, yet only 40% are active recyclers. “Seven out of ten people asked for more and better information – this campaign will help to bridge that gap,” said Jim Fielder, Campaign Manager at Waste Watch.
With £1 million, London Remade is encouraging local businesses, schools and hospitals to sign up to The Mayor’s Green Procurement Code – a pledge to buy recycled products. They are also advising the four boroughs, most of which have recently received substantial funding from the London Recycling Fund, on how to streamline effective recycling collection systems and improve services for residents.
The launch event included a live performance by Year 6 children from Langford Primary School in Hammersmith which is participating in the campaign. The children performed two songs about recycling and played instruments they had made from household rubbish. They also played a giant, floor-based ‘board’ game called The Rubbish Challenge which teaches them the ‘3Rs’ – reduce, reuse and recycle.
The campaign is aiming to help the Western Riverside Waste Authority meet its Government-set targets of recycling 16% of household rubbish in the 2003/4 financial year and 24% in 2005/6. Currently the recycling rate for the area is 9.5% so rapid change is needed.