The Welsh Assembly is funding the project aimed at helping local authorities meet the tough target of 40% recycling set in its Welsh Waste Strategy of June 2002.
The initiative, which starts in September 2002, will build on the branding of the National Waste Awareness Initiative's Rethink Rubbish campaign for England and Wales. The Welsh title for the bilingual campaign is likely to be 'Ustyried Sbwriel,' which roughly translates as “Think Through Rubbish.”
Welsh local authorities will be encouraged to use the campaign's message and publicity materials to help them promote their own recycling services.
Limited
Eurgain John, policy officer for the WLGA, said: “A couple of Welsh local authorities have signed up to the NWAI's Rethink Rubbish campaign already, but there is only a limited amount of work they can do with Wales because they're based in Leeds.”
The 700,000 will be split equally between WLGA and Keep Wales Tidy. Ms Marian Webber, regional officer for Keep Wales Tidy in South Wales, said: “The project will deal with all the issues that affect our immediate environment – litter, graffiti and so on.
“It's very nice we are being involved. It's quite a lot more work and there will be huge changes in our own organisation.”
The Welsh National Assembly launched a Waste Strategy for Wales in June, which set recycling targets for household waste at 40% by 2009/10 – compared to just 30% in England.
“The Assembly is very keen for authorities to make some progress because the new waste strategy has higher targets than the waste strategy for England and Wales,” said Ms John.
But she admitted that the current recycling rate in Wales of around 5% was worse than the UK in general, which is about 12%. “The target is quite ambitious but I am confident the campaign will help local authorities to meet it,” she said.
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