WRAP pulls plug on Rethink Rubbish

The decision came following independent research that found that the Rethink Rubbish message did not have sufficient consumer “buy in” to be taken forward.

Rethink Rubbish was launched by the National Waste Awareness Initiative in May 2002 as a unifying brand for local authority recycling campaigns. Since conception it has been adopted by over 300 councils across the country, 13 major retailers and was endorsed by a flurry of celebrities.

Alistair McGowan was one celebrity who supported Rethink Rubbish

The government gave WRAP the responsibility for raising consumer awareness – with a multi-million pound budget – last year. WRAP funded Rethink Rubbish to the tune of 500,000 for the period up to March 31, 2004.

Cut through
But the independent review said that although some positive outcomes were achieved by Rethink Rubbish, it “has not achieved a real cut through with consumers or engaged with major retailers”.

If the full weight of WRAP's national campaign were put behind Rethink Rubbish, the research indicated that there “is no certainty that this would capture hearts and minds and deliver a call to action”, it said.

WRAP chief executive Jennie Price said: “As WRAP engages in the national campaign, it will be important to build upon the goodwill and experience developed with all stakeholders. This, combined with a consumer call to action that truly does achieve &#39c;ut through' will be key to a really effective campaign.”

”Naturally we're disappointed but WRAP's assessment is a balanced one.“
– Gareth Morton, Rethink Rubbish
Hand over
A “controlled hand over” of Rethink Rubbish will now take place in June 2004, paving the way for WRAP's own national waste awareness campaign.

Gareth Morton, campaign director at Rethink Rubbish, said: “Naturally we're disappointed but WRAP's assessment is a balanced one and we are glad that we now have clarity about the future. We anticipate working closely with WRAP in order to build on the lessons learnt from Rethink Rubbish and to develop a campaign which achieves real consumer &#39c;ut through'. We will be liaising with all our stakeholders imminently.”

Speaking to letsrecycle.com, WRAP head of communications Julie Parry said that the organisation would look to continue working with Waste Watch and SWAP – the groups who ran Rethink Rubbish – in its forthcoming national campaign.

The new campaign, which should begin in the summer, will be run with minimal branding from WRAP in order to give maximum impact to the waste awareness message itself, she said.

”We are significantly down the line in terms of research on the new campaign.“
– Julie Parry, WRAP
“We will all be working with local authorities to help maximise the opportunities a national campaign will bring,” Ms Parry said, “but we will not be imposing it on local authorities, they will just be given the chance of collaborating with it.”

Ms Parry said: “We are significantly down the line in terms of research on the new campaign.”

Dismal
Other waste awareness campaigns have come in for criticism when studied for effectiveness at getting their message across – particularly when they did not accompany new recycling services. A recent report by Professor Peter Tucker of the University of Paisley said that the Anglia region's 'Slim Your Bin' campaign returned “dismal” results.

However, some councils have seen campaign successes through the use of television advertising – Devon county council believe they were able to cut their waste disposal budget this year because of the effectiveness of the “Don't Let Devon Go to Waste” campaign, which included television advertising (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the possibility of using television adverts for WRAP's national campaign, Ms Parry said: “We are looking into (using television) for our campaign – all I will say at the moment is that it has not been discounted.”