More than two thirds of shoppers “thought better” of the supermarket chain Waitrose after it used “barkers” on its shelves to show its support for a recycling campaign.
An evaluation survey following the supermarket's involvement in Alupro's “Get Recycling” campaign showed that 98% of shoppers believe supermarkets should be at the forefront of promoting environmental messages.
The survey showed the benefits to the Waitrose brand of using “barkers” – promotional signs on supermarket shelves – to promote the “Get Recycling” campaign. In the survey, 69% of the respondents said they thought better of Waitrose because of its promotion of the recycling message.
Nick Jones, Waitrose Assistant to the General Manager, says, “We were pleased to support this worthwhile campaign in April and May, and are interested to see the high approval ratings for the concepts employed. The shelf barkers were reinforced with campaign logos on can banks in car parks.”
The national campaign run by Alupro, the aluminium can recycling organisation, pledges to plant a tree this autumn for every tonne of aluminium cans and foil recycled in the UK. As well as Waitrose, the campaign has been supported by over 300 local authorities.
250 councils to benefit from Defra targeted support
Defra has said it will provide financial assistance to 250 English local authorities after bidding for the Waste Implementation Programme's consultancy support fund came to a close.
The fund will provide 20,000 grants for about 180 projects being run by local authorities and local authority partnerships. Over 2 million in total will be handed out to allow the councils to deal with local barriers to recycling in the 2004/05 period.
The grants will allow councils to take on consultants to help develop new recycling initiatives and waste strategies, while it will allow others to plan for the forthcoming Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme.
Commenting on the fund, WIP's head of local authority support, John Enright, said he was pleased with the number of applications from council partnerships. He said: “We are delighted to see such a high proportion of applications for joint strategic projects. This will also help to encourage closer and more effective working between authorities.”
New waste exhibition for schools set to open in Bristol
A new waste exhibition and education project in Bristol has been given 325,000 by the SITA Environmental Trust for “dynamic, hands-on” waste awareness work with schools.
SWEEP, the Sustainable Waste Exhibition and Education Programme, will be open at the city's Wildwalk attraction next year and is set to run for three years. Organisers at-Bristol said the exhibition would use a series of hands-on visuals to emphasis the importance of sustainability.
Plans for the exhibition include producing a wormery to demonstrate the recycling of nutrients and an intereactive “eco-footprint” calculator for visitors to find out their personal impact on the planet.
The at-Bristol head of development, Kevin Lamb, said: “Visitor feedback has shown a great demand for events, workshops and activities addressing the environment and recycling.”
While the exhibition will open next year, a public programme of waste awareness activities will kick off this month at the Wildwalk venue.
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