A new recycling campaign, created for West Sussex, has used some stunning computer generated images to help drive home the message to residents. Real World Visuals has created the campaign to illustrate the amount of recyclable waste thrown away by West Sussex residents in their black bags, worth £3m.
Nicola Cosson, Communications Manager at West Sussex County Council Waste Management Service said: “Our local residents were doing a great job, recycling 80% of the correct materials. But the missed 20% represents a significant cost. The brief to Real World Visuals was to break through people’s apathy and get their attention, re-engaging residents about the cost benefits of recycling.”
Antony Turner, Director of Real World Visuals, said: “West Sussex County Council Waste Management Service wanted an innovative way to reach out to households and approached us for ideas. Starting with the Council’s waste dataset, we created an extraordinary visual campaign to highlight the missed value in recyclable materials.”
The film shows how much rubbish could be recycled by each household in West Sussex in a week, and how much of that ends up in the residual (black bag) waste stream. Over the course of a year the heap of recyclable materials disposed of by each household grows to a considerable size.
The camera then zooms out to reveal the mountain of recyclable waste that West Sussex residents throw out each year, which if recycled could save staggering £3m.
With most households already recycling, the campaign was designed to re-energise existing recyclers and convince non-recyclers of the financial benefits of recycling. Using the same team to produce the online and offline materials was key to ensure consistency and impact of the campaign.
Cosson continued: “From the engagement we received from the original film, we were able to then drill down into more material specific messaging, to highlight exactly what that missing 20% was made up of and educate residents on recyclable materials like foil, plastic pots and aerosols.”
On Facebook alone, the film has been viewed more than 43k times, while other posts and ads from the campaign have received 130k engagements and impressions from targeted local residents.
For more on the “Think before you throw” campaign, visit the website here