Recycle Week has 'best ever' social media engagement

By Lidia Creech | 4 November 2020 | Add a Comment

National recycling campaign Recycle Now yesterday (3 November) announced that this year’s Recycle Week, which was marked by a number of outreach events and activities, cultivated its ‘best ever’ engagement on social media.

The Recycle Week event received a total of 26 million digital impressions, up from 22 million last year, and 185 million interactions with the event through public relations, up from 59 million last year.

The campaign, which is managed by WRAP, received external funding from 15 commercial donors. This gave Recycle Now the opportunity to release a short film depicting the ‘unsung heroes of recycling’ – collection workers – which stands at the heart of the campaign.

A number of outreach events and activities were also held over the course of the week, including podcasts and a partnership with One Minute Briefs, which gave social media users the chance to win a cash prize for creating adverts, sketches or posters for the promotion of Recycle Week.

Blackpool Tower lit up green for Recycle Week

In a show of support for the Recycle Week event, several landmarks across England and Northern Ireland lit up green, including the London Eye, the Blackpool Tower, Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Belfast City Hall and Enniskillen Castle.

Marcus Gover, WRAP CEO, commented he was ‘absolutely delighted’ with the outcome of this year’s Recycle Week, which faced many challenges posed by the pandemic.

He said: “Planning the 2020 campaign was tricky for the Recycle Now team, with so many unknowns. Earlier this year we really had no idea what would be happening in the UK – or indeed the world - by the end of September.

“We realised that we would have to remain as flexible as possible to make sure our messages would still resonate with citizens and ultimately drive recycling behaviour change. 2020 has been our most successful campaign to date.

“I was delighted that a number of businesses chose to show their leadership by supporting Recycle Week financially this year. This has meant we could reach more people and help them to play their part in creating a world in which resources are used sustainably.”