Rethink Rubbish joined with the Woodland Trust's annual Christmas card recycling campaign this year to encourage people to use special card recycling bins available in WH Smith and Tesco stores until February 1.
 Model Nell McAndrew promoting the recycling message |
Cards from the bins are collected by SCA Recycling from WH Smiths and Severnside Recycling from Tesco, and Nottinghamshire county council then verifies how many cards are collected. Revenue from paper and card sold to SCA Recycling and Severnside Recycling goes towards conservation projects carried out by the Woodland Trust.
Last year, the Woodland Trust campaign saw 787 tonnes of material collected – about 40 million cards (see letsrecycle.com story).
This year's campaign hopes to top this figure, and with the celebrity-endorsed Rethink Rubbish adding its efforts, it has already received some good media coverage. Capturing the interest of newspaper editors around the country, Ms McAndrew wore an outfit made out of old Christmas cards to launch the campaign.
Thanks to the former I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here contestant, the Rethink Rubbish message hit the headlines across the country in newspapers including the Daily Star, The Scotsman, Yorkshire Post, Morning Star, Glasgow Evening Times and the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press.
Ms McAndrew said: “Last year, 40 million cards were collected and recycled by the scheme – which is enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall twice over. We hope that even more people will take part this year, helping us to collect and recycle millions more cards.”
Rethink
As well as raising interest in the Christmas card scheme, Rethink Rubbish has been using the campaign to remind householders of the need to recycle other waste from the festive period. It is thought that about 3 million tonnes of household waste is produced over the Christmas and New Year period in the UK.
Rethink Rubbish campaign director Gareth Morton said: “The number of homes with kerbside collection schemes is set to increase further in the New Year, making recycling even easier. More than 60% of the contents of the average household bin can be recycled, including many festive items that often get thrown away such as cards and Christmas trees.”
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