The first consumer waste education campaign run by the National Waste Awareness Initiative, Rethink Rubbish was designed to increase understanding about the scale of household rubbish. Funded by DEFRA and Landfill Tax Credits, the aim of the scheme has been to persuade the public to take more responsibility and ownership of their waste, and encourage them to reduce, reuse and recycle more.
 Impressionist Alistair McGowan has backed the award-winning Rethink Rubbish campaign |
The campaign won the silver award, at a ceremony held at the Le Meridien Hotel in Leeds, based on the widespread media coverage it has achieved. The characteristic Rethink Rubbish giant mobile rubbish bin has been spotted at various events around the country, and the scheme has also had the backing of celebrities including impressionist Alistair McGowan.
With its roadshows, street theatre, competitions and other activities taking place over the summer of 2002, the campaign has produced 102.5 million 'opportunities to see', worth an editorial value of 2.2 million.
Commenting on the award, projects director Gareth Morton said: “It's excellent – for a waste awareness campaign to win a PR award is really quite significant and it's a credit to the team that worked on the campaign.”
Future
The Rethink Rubbish team is now working on plans for next year – getting feedback on the campaign from retailers and local authorities that took part and looking into how to target the campaign better when it starts up again early next year.
The campaign organisers also have an eye on what the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit report will recommend. There is some expectation that money will be made available for a national awareness campaign and there are ideas surfacing concerning the use of television in getting the recycling message across.
“Television advertising has two costs,” Mr Morton explained, “the original production cost of the advert and air-time on television. What we could do is some sort of generic advert that could be tailored for local circumstances – perhaps having a part at the end open for a localised voice-over.”
But as far as Rethink Rubbish goes, it's very much 'wait and see' – there is also a possibility that they will be working with new organisations in their campaign next year.
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