Cambridgeshire County Council
Budget
£162, 497 - WRAP funding
Launched
April 2004
Sections
Background
The RECAP partnership consists of Cambridgeshire County council, Cambridge City Council, East Cambridgeshire DC, Fenland DC, Huntingdonshire DC, Peterborough City Council and South Cambridgeshire DC.
Across the partners there are over 700, 000 residents living in a largely rural area with many market towns. There are two significant cities, Cambridge and Peterborough. A Breakdown of households is as follows:
| Authority | Households |
| Cambridge City | 45,000 |
| East Cambridgeshire | 32,000 |
| Fenland | 38,200 |
| Huntingdonshire | 66,600 |
| Peterborough City | 71,000 |
| South Cambridgeshire | 55,500 |
The recycling and composting systems in each of the authorities varies. Over the past four-years RECAP have strived to achieve levels of uniformity in terms of levels of service and materials collected.
All authorities now offer district-wide three-stream collections of refuse, dry recycling and composting. Three authorities use three wheeled bins, two use two wheeled bins and a box for dry recycling and one uses a two sack collection with a box for dry recycling.
Most partners run alternate weekly schemes, the exception being East Cambridgeshire who are running a trial with sacks.
The materials collected are glass, paper, cardboard, cans, plastic bottles, tetrapaks, garden and kitchen waste although not all are collected in all councils.
South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City do not collect Tetrapaks and
Peterborough City do not collected kitchen waste because of the reprocessors available to them.
Aims and Objectives
The communication methods were aimed at supporting the roll out of composting and dry recycling collections, the introduction of plastic bottle recycling banks and underground recycling systems.
The objectives were:
- A better informed public
- More positive public attitude towards waste
- Encourage participation in schemes
- Increase tonnages recycled and BVPI’S
Management
A Project Manager, working on behalf of the RECAP partnership, oversaw the project.
Approach
The Recycle Now identity was fully embraced and good communications material produced. The awareness surveys showed that leaflets and magazines provided a high score of recognition from residents. The communication methods used were:
- Advertising through newspapers, magazines and radio
- Stickers
- Leaflets
- Information packs
- Bin hangers
- Newsletters
- Road shows
- Trailer artwork
The communications were used to introduce new services including plastic banks. This was achieved with little negative press and consistent branding across the partnership.