3 November 2020
This year Recycle Now tapped into the cultural shift of citizens’ new-found respect for the planet, acquired during lockdown.
By harnessing the mood of the nation, it achieved an incredible 26 million digital impressions and a whopping 185 million opportunities to see, hear or read about Recycle Week through PR - up from 22 million and 59 million respectively last year.
Under the strapline ‘Together, We Recycle’, the campaign thanked the nation –for continuing to recycle, despite all that has happened this year.
For the first time ever Recycle Now secured external funding from 15 major commercial donors, enabling them to enhance the campaign and take it to the next level. At the heart of the campaign was the ‘hero’ film; this was a hard-hitting emotive film which celebrated the unsung heroes of recycling – our collection workers. Totalling over 1.5 million views in 7 days, it really captured the mood of the nation.
This was complemented by a huge range of activities during the Week, generating impressive engagement figures. Podcast sponsorships and a partnership with One Minute Briefs were among many innovations introduced by Recycle Now to inspire citizens to change their recycling behaviours.
The country was turned green as iconic landmarks across England and Northern Ireland were lit up to outwardly demonstrate their support of Recycle Week. These included the London Eye, The Blackpool Tower, Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Belfast City Hall and Enniskillen Castle, among many others. The City of London’s Tower 42 proudly displayed the Recycle Now ‘swoosh’ for the whole week.
Marcus Gover, WRAP CEO, said:
“I am absolutely delighted with the results of this year’s Recycle Week, which has been a triumph despite the difficulties posed by the pandemic. Planning the 2020 campaign was tricky for the Recycle Now team, with so many unknowns. Earlier this year we really had no idea what would be happening in the UK – or indeed the world - by the end of September.
“We realised that we would have to remain as flexible as possible to make sure our messages would still resonate with citizens and ultimately drive recycling behaviour change. 2020 has been our most successful campaign to date.
“I was delighted that a number of businesses chose to show their leadership by supporting Recycle Week financially this year. This has meant we could reach more people and help them to play their part in creating a world in which resources are used sustainably.”
Local authorities, retailers and brands all joined forces and got behind the campaign. The donations received allowed Recycle Now to experiment with some new channels and these really paid. The brand is pleased to be able to announce next year’s Recycle Week date: 20 – 26 September 2021.
Ends
For more information – to request interviews:
Recycle Now: Carolyn Smith – [email protected] – 07799701412 – www.recyclenow.com
Recycle Now Instagram @recyclenow_uk | Recycle Now Twitter @recycle_now | Recycle Now Facebook @recyclenow
Notes to Editor
See the Recycle Week ‘hero’ film here:
https://www.recyclenow.com/recycle-week-2020
Recycle Week
First staged in 2004, Recycle Week is now the UK’s largest national annual recycling campaign. It is the week where citizens, media, local governments, and brands come together to meet one goal: to galvanise everyone into recycling more of the right things, more often.
2020 Recycle Week Donors
This year, for the first time, Recycle Now was delighted to welcome commercial donors who supported Recycle Week: Sainsbury’s, Ocado, Co-op, Britvic, Highland Spring, Unilever UK and Ireland, Suntory Beverage and Food GB&I , Danone, PepsiCo, Reckitt Benckiser, Eco Surety, Suez, Waitrose, Aldi and SAP provided funding to help inspire citizens to recycle more of the right things, more often, as well as organising their own events and activities during the Week. L’Oréal Paris Elvive ran a campaign before, during and after Recycle Week, during which 50p from each of the first 100,000 bottles of Elvive hair products sold in Boots stores was donated to Recycle Now.
About Recycle Now
Recycle Now is one of WRAP’s family of consumer facing brands.
An established brand, Recycle Now encourages and motivates citizens to recycle more things, more often, from all around the home. Using ground-breaking, robust insights and behaviour change theory, we develop interventions and campaigns to motivate citizens to change their behaviour.
For more information about Recycle Now visit www.recyclenow.com