A coalition of food companies and NGOs has come together to pilot new ideas for encouraging recycling on-the-go.
A six month campaign called #LeedsByExample will launch in Leeds city centre in September. It will test the latest thinking on how to increase recycling rates for food and drinks packaging, including a combination of ground-breaking technology, new recycling facilities and engaging communications.
The project has been jointly developed by waste charity Hubbub and recycling compliance scheme EcoSurety and is supported by Leeds City Council. To-date, 18 organisations have formally joined the partnership including Asda, British Plastics Federation, Coca-Cola GB and Costa.
#LeedsByExample will see new recycling facilities introduced on the streets, in local offices, shopping centres, universities and transport hubs.
The initiative will also see the first UK trial of an app developed by OPRL, which will use on-pack barcodes to help people understand what and how to recycle, with a map to find their nearest recycling points.
Leeds has in part been chosen for the pilot because of its young demographic with 57% of the population of the city centre aged 16 to 24. Hubbub says that research shows 18 to 25 year olds are twice as likely as older generations to buy food on-the-go but millennials are less likely to recycle.
The campaign is a continuation of Hubbub’s attempts to bring together key organisations to cut littering and boost recycling. It recently launched a #DriveDownLitter campaign which seeks to reduce motorway littering and includes the installation of two new recycling reward machines for coffee cups and plastic bottles at a service station in Maidstone, Kent.
