Environmental charity Hubbub is urging local businesses to sign-up to Swansea #InTheLoop, a new campaign to improve on-the-go recycling rates in the city centre. Backed by a range of national brands and retailers, the campaign is being run in partnership with Swansea City Council. Swansea #InTheLoop will launch as a five-month pilot in September, aiming to increase levels of recycling of plastic bottles, cans, glass bottles and coffee cups. It will introduce a fresh new look for recycling points across the city and engaging communications activities to educate and inspire people to recycle in the right way.
A central focus of the campaign will be to improve coffee cup recycling. Cups can be recycled but have to be recycled in their own separate recycling bins, due to the plastic lining that stops the cups from leaking. To tackle this, Swansea City Council will introduce new bright orange bins in the city centre to collect coffee cups.
Businesses in the city centre will have an important role to play in spreading the word to their staff and customers about the new opportunities to improve recycling rates in the city. Organisations signing up to Swansea #InTheLoop will be provided with:
- discounted bins and collections for coffee cup recycling
- a bank of high quality recycling communications materials for employees
- the opportunity to work closely with partners to measure their impact
- access to additional activations and events that can be customised to suit their company.
Participating businesses will also have exclusive access to an event being held on 10th September in Swansea city centre, where they will be able to meet with stakeholders and partners to hear more about how their involvement will contribute to revolutionising recycling across the city.
Led by Hubbub and Swansea City Council, the campaign is also being supported by local partners, who collaboratively have made the initiative possible. These include the Environment Centre, Swansea University and Keep Wales Tidy – pioneers of the Love Wales recycling initiative.
All organisations based in Swansea city centre are encouraged to take part, and participation in the campaign is funded by the following collaboration of funders:
Starbucks, Ecosurety, Asda, Bunzl, Caffè Nero, Coca-Cola GB, Costa Coffee, Danone, Highland Spring Group, Innocent Drinks, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Pret a Manger and Shell.
Gavin Ellis, Co-founder and Director of Hubbub said:
“Wales is already well-known for its high recycling rates, with the country ranking second in the world for recycling household waste after Germany. One area that still needs improving is recycling when ‘out and about’, which is why we’re launching this campaign in Swansea in partnership with Swansea City Council. The success of this initiative will rely on all those who live and work in the city centre knowing about the new opportunities to recycle, so we’re calling on any city centre business keen on demonstrating their commitment to recycling and waste reduction to get in touch.”
Philip McDonnell, Manager of the Environment Centre, Swansea said:
“This is an exciting next step to helping Swansea residents make positive changes for a greener, healthier lifestyle. This campaign demonstrates that by coming together as a community, we can all make small adjustments to our behaviour that have a big impact to our local area and the planet. We hope that businesses getting involved can help us achieve our three aims – by empowering their employees to take action on the issue, we can work together to develop a solution and promote awareness of the issue of recycling while on-the-go.”
Cllr Mark Thomas, Cabinet Member for Environment & Infrastructure Management at Swansea Council said:
“Recycling does not involve only recycling household waste in your own home. Clearly people consume items on the move while they are out and about. We already work with many local businesses in Swansea to provide commercial waste recycling services so businesses can recycle more in the workplace. Anything more that can be done to capture more waste for recycling and divert it away from landfill should be welcomed and taken advantage of.”
For more information, visit: https://www.hubbub.org.uk/swansea-intheloop-collaboration or contact enterprise@hubbub.org.uk