Recycling doubles at new modern-look bring banks

The rescape banks, designed by the UK's largest producer compliance scheme Valpak to be more appealing to the public, have been trialled in three Hertfordshire Tesco stores.

Head of business development at Valpak, Andrew McCaffery, said he believed the results demonstrate that rescape is a groundbreaking product which can specifically help to increase recycling rates.

“Feedback from our customer surveys shows that people really liked the brighter, cleaner, more appealing faade of the banks, with customers giving them an average score of 9.7 out of ten. As a consequence, they felt more inclined to recycle,” he said.

The banks can take glass, paper, aluminium, steel, plastic, textiles and shoes and are made by SMF International. Their purpose is to overcome common problems associated with recycling sites, such as unsightly containers, lack of information and unrestricted material overflow.

In its study of the banks, Valpak has found that collection tonnages of all materials increased at every store, and notably glass recycling jumped from 2.5 tonnes to four tonnes a week at one of the banks.

Part of the success can be attributed to plastic collection being offered, said the report. “Plastic could be viewed as a ‘loss leader’. People expressed an interest in plastic collections and brought other materials to recycle at the same time,” it said.

Direct mail

Valpak also said that direct mailing to the public living in one of the areas had a significant impact on the volume of material collected in the weeks following. And that the level of material being collected at that centre has been sustained since the mailing.

The most popular times for recycling were on the weekends and in the mornings and the highest portion of recyclers were women over the age of 40.

Valpak said that there had been very little impact on kerbside collections in the area where the banks were installed. This, said Mr McCaffery, “implies that the material collected is from a new source, rather than simply diverted from alternative forms of collection.”

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