As promised, four posters have been produced to promote the collection of plastics (shampoo bottles); aerosols (deodorant cans); glass (clear jars) and Magazines.  The posters have some interesting energy saving information/facts. So take a look now and see which one(s) you are going to download.

By next week a document with lots of useful statistics relating to the collection of these four key items will be available too. This will enable you to create your own interesting facts for residents.

Finally, a selection of Strip Ads featuring some big brand names will be available in the next few days. Quirky and fun, they capture the imagination!

A set of FREE t-shirts is available for local authorities and community groups when registering your Recycle Week event. Don't forget to contact us before the bank holiday weekend though!

If you are stumped for ideas, take a look at the Campaign Guide for simple but effective events. Or check out the BBC toolkit for activities that work well on radio.

Schools can create a life-sized Recycle Now "swoosh" and receive some great recycled goodies for their efforts too! Also available is a presentation to use in assembly to kick-off Recycle Week at school.

Recycle Week is the ideal opportunity for schools to review their recycling activities and for students to look at their recycling actions at home. Why not take a quick look at the Waste Audit and Action Plan and the homework activities now.

We'd like as many schools as possible to get involved, so please let schools in your area know about these resources.

Consumers will be seeing and hearing about how they can recycle "just one more thing" and to check their local services on Recycle Now, so make sure the information about your area is correct.

To do this:

• Log into the Recycling Management System on Recycle-More using your unique LA login details.
• Edit your recycling sites, kerbside or contact details and save.

This information will automatically amend both the Recycle Now and Recycle-More websites.

If you have forgotten your login details or would like more information, email the recycle-more team or call 08450 682 572.

We are planning an 'extra edition' of the Ezine to go out next week and this would be an ideal opportunity for local authorities and community groups to hear about your plans for Recycle Week.

We've heard from one or two of you already, but contact us with your plans by next Tuesday (20th May) and we will let everyone else know too!

Thank you

The key focus of the programme continues to be recycling, however this year the support has been expanded to include waste prevention. The total budget for this programme is around £6.5m and WRAP anticipates this being split 50:50 between advisory support and funding for local communications. There will be some targeting of resources and three priority areas have been identified reflecting wider national priorities: waste prevention (including food waste), improving recycling performance and food waste collections.

A single 'Request for Support' form should be completed for both advisory support and communications funding. Further details can be found on the WRAP website or by contacting us.

If so, the Recycling Managers Training Course - Phase 2 may be of interest to you.

Comments from our previous delegates include: "I now possess a wide range of information for my job" and "I now have a more holistic view regarding the way I approach my work".

The next Recycling Managers Training Course - Phase 2, takes place in Southampton on 15th -18th July and additional courses will be available later in the year. Courses are fully funded for local authority staff.

Click here to register for this course.

To help combat this, a guidance document "Improving Low Participation Areas - Effective Communications Planning" has been developed. It works on the premise that there is no "off-the-shelf" solution to tackling low participation and that each LPA will have its own unique set of characteristics, which must be clearly understood. The guide is supported by a simple online tool which takes users through the decision-making process.

Louise Bowe, WRAP, said: "Almost every local authority in the UK will have streets, neighbourhoods or maybe larger areas that under-perform when it comes to recycling and this can seriously undermine the overall success of collection schemes. Encouraging these residents to participate fully in recycling services can be challenging. However, we hope this guidance will help local authorities identify the unique issues within their LPAs and communicate with those residents more effectively."

WRAP will be running some dissemination events to help users get the best out of the guidance and tool later in the year. These will be announced on the training page of the website.

These include:

• An ideas toolkit, with great photography and event ideas
• Template poster, leaflet and website copy
• An image gallery of carton pictures and videos
• A factsheet to explain everything your residents need to know about carton recycling
• An order form to request eye-catching leaflets promoting carton recycling
• An order form to request the loan of a giant inflatable carton for upcoming events
• A downloadable Recycling Pledge "button" for your website

Tetra Pak is also launching a "Recycling Pledge" during Recycle Week 2008, which you can tailor to provide a local news story for your area. To obtain template press releases, as well as local statistics on carton use, please email tetrapak@fishburn-hedges.co.uk.