Keep Britain Tidy merges with Waste Watch

The merger comes as Wigan-based Keep Britain Tidy moves forward with efforts to strengthen its involvement in recycling ahead of its public launch of the government-endorsed Love Where You Live campaign this autumn.

In a statement today (August 2) the two organisations, both of which have charitable status and have received funding from Defra, said that the decision to come together follows a year-long strategic alliance, and brings together two like-minded charities with distinctive, but complementary agendas.

Exciting

Keep Britain Tidys chief executive Phil Barton said: “This merger is an exciting development for us. There is a clear link between the issues of litter and local environmental quality and the wider waste, recycling and sustainability agendas, as the government recognised recently in the Waste Review, so bringing the two organisations together is an important and positive step forward.

And, signalling more campaign work to get the public to recycle, Mr Barton said: We dont just want to stop people dropping litter. We want to encourage individuals and organisations to reuse and recycle as much as possible, to make choices that will reduce the amount of resources they use and to take care of their local environments.

Waste Watchs executive director Stewart Crocker, who is stepping down, said: Waste Watch has successfully championed the social benefits of a sustainable lifestyle, showing how we can improve the well-being of communities whilst reducing their environmental footprint. This merger allows us, through our combined skills, resources and experience, to link up local and global issues using an approach that will make an even greater difference to peoples lives and the health of the planet.

Brands

Both the Keep Britain Tidy and Waste Watch brands are retained in the merger, but Keep Britain Tidy becomes the trading name. The merged organisation also keeps the current Keep Britain Tidy office in Wigan and the Waste Watch office in London.

A review will take place later this year with a new strategy and business plan being published in April 2012. Chair of Waste Watch, Mathew Bennett, becomes Vice-Chair of the new Board working with Keep Britain Tidy Chairman, Mike Phillips.

Sam Jarvis, communications director for Keep Britain Tidy, explained the issue was also about capturing litter as a wastedresource as well as reducing it. And, he pointed to compatible education roles in the two charities, Keep Britain Tidy runs EcoSchools a sustainability programme so fits well with WasteWatchs work in schools.

The two charities have been involved in some recycling work and going forward will have an alliance with the Waste & Resources Action Programme, working for example on the Recycling on the go campaign.

Mr Jarvis added that the merger joins up litter as a symptom with waste prevention and recycling. Both organisations want to see more recycling on the go.

However, he added that public-facing recycling campaigns will remain with WRAP whereas Keep Britain Tidy will run more cross sector campaigns such as Love Where You Live.