High Peak Borough Council
Budget
£55,000
Launched
March 2006
Sections
Background
High Peak Borough Council is in Derbyshire and has a population of 89,500. It is a largely rural area which includes part of the Peak District National Park and has two main market towns, Buxton and Glossop. The council has a fortnightly kerbside collection of glass, cans, paper and textiles but the recycling rate has historically been poor. In order to improve this, the council introduced a pilot alternate weekly collection service to 13,000 households in Glossopdale in May 2006.
Aims and Objectives
The campaign objectives were as follows:
- Plan a series of communications activities leading up to, during and following the launch of the new service
- Ensure residents in Glossopdale had sufficient opportunities to be made aware of the new service and its implications through a number of communications activities
- Develop a suite of communications materials designed to encourage high participation in the new service
Approach
The first stage of the campaign was to take all stakeholders (including local press and councillors) on a trip to the local landfill and MRF to explain why the scheme was being introduced and the consequences for local waste collection costs if nothing was done.
A high impact campaign was developed to inform and educate residents. This consisted of a teaser leaflet and doorstepping campaign backed up by advertising, new website copy, PR and radio ads with a catchy “Binnovation” theme tune to the tune of Record Breaker’s Dedication leading up to a launch day.
The launch day featured specially designed information boards and stands as well as a waste education vehicle and the Recycle Now can car.
Information packs and calendars were distributed immediately prior to the delivery of the bins. The doorstepping team continued their work, responding to enquiries from the public and providing advice.
Using RecycleNow
The campaign used the Recycle Now branding in conjunction with their “Binnovation” logo and used the strapline “recycle for a greener High Peak”. The branding and iconography were adopted as they made communications clear and simple and enabled the campaign to capitalise on the “noise” generated by the national campaign.
Monitoring
The campaign’s activities were monitored through a range of processes including the increase in recycling and composting tonnage, the number of positive press articles achieved and the overall increase in recycling rate. Participation monitoring is about to be undertaken.
Achievements
The local press has backed the scheme, with several positive articles in the local paper, unlike the introduction of many other alternate weekly collections. There have been very few complaints to the council and the Councillors have been very pleased with the smooth introduction of the scheme.
So far only figures for May and June are available. These show that 297 tonnes of compostable waste and 241 tonnes of dry recyclables have been collected in the trail area in the first 7 weeks of the scheme. The council is on track to meet its 2006/07 recycling rate of 18% and this should be exceeded once the scheme is introduced across the whole borough.
For more information, please contact Joy Kirby or Chris Noble on 0845 129 7777 or Fridey Cordingley at WRAP Fridey.Cordingley@wrap.org.uk.