Recycling award for Right Stuff Right Bin campaign

Vicki Hughes, Karen Hall, Pamela Dickinson, Councillor Chris Gordan, Paul Whiting,waste minimisation officer for Rochdale Borough Council, Tina Harding, and awards host Hal Cruttenden

Rochdale Borough Council’s Right Stuff Right Bin campaign to help residents put the right waste in the correct bin has won a national recycling award at the MRW National Recycling Awards (NRA).

The campaign, which is run in partnership with Recycle for Greater Manchester, has picked up the award for Local Authority Innovation and was collected by Rochdale Borough Council Waste Minimisation Officer Paul Whiting.

Councillor Jacqui Beswick, Cabinet Member for Housing and Environment, said: “Congratulations to all of the staff who have been involved in the Right Stuff Right Bin campaign.

“Our contaminated load rates have come down significantly on the rounds we have targeted and recycling rates have also improved since the campaign launched. It costs the council around £70,000 each year for recycling loads with the wrong items but if residents help sort their recycling correctly that’s money that can be used for the frontline council services that really matter to the public instead.”

The Right Stuff, Right Bin campaign was trialled by 1,600 households in Newbold, Belfield and Wardleworth from 20 September to 15 November 2013. As part of the campaign, officers left a green ‘thank you’ tag on bins with correctly sorted recycling, but the recycling bins found to contain the wrong items, such as plastic bags were given a red ‘wrong stuff, wrong bin’ tag with information on what can be recycled and what to leave out. This was also supported by door-knocking and events, speaking to residents directly. During the pilot contaminated loads were reduced by 61 per cent in the green mixed recycling bin and recycling rates went up by 49 per cent. Recycling rates for paper and card in blue bins went up by seven per cent. Failing to sort rubbish properly costs Rochdale borough taxpayers around £70,000 each year as fines of £295 per tonne are levied for each contaminated load.

The pilot campaign has proved so successful that it has already been rolled out to include the Friday Littleborough round and in future to the entire borough.

Karen Hall, Recycle For Greater Manager Communications Manager, said: “We’re delighted that our Right Stuff Right Bin campaign with Rochdale Council won the local authority innovation award. Due to the success of the initial campaign in Newbold, we have launched the campaign in other areas of Greater Manchester."

Robin Latchem, editor of Material Recycling World, said: “There is a growing realisation among companies, organisations and individuals outside our industry just how important it is to value our resources, reduce waste and maximise reuse or recycling – and the NRAs play a vital role in getting that ‘bottom line’ message across."