Minutes:
Ruth Dixon (Lead Commissioner - Waste Strategy & Contracts, WCC) presented a PowerPoint and summarised that:
· Various behavioural change campaigns take place, these focus on all aspects of the waste hierarchy from waste prevention to recycling.
· Waste prevention campaigns include - not creating waste in the first place by not buying new and repairing/reusing instead, a ‘Second-hand September’ campaign that focused on what to do with reused and preloved items, especially clothing. People were expected to buy less with the current cost of living issue.
· Home composting was a current focus - making leaf mulch in the autumn, as well as preparing the garden for winter. A live online home composting workshop was carried out and there is a pre-recorded one on YouTube too. More live online home composting workshops will be carried out in Spring 2023.
· There was a focus on recycling electricals and batteries properly to avoid bin fires. Hypno-cat is the national campaign for this.
· Vapes were being incorrectly put in general waste bins so there is a campaigning to get users to take their used ones back to where they bought them
· For Recycle Week in the autumn, all authorities focussed on increasing recycling and reducing contamination.
· A big part of the communications in October is how deal with Halloween pumpkins including actually eating them, e.g. pumpkin soup.
· For International Repair Day, repair cafes across the county were promoted
· For Black Friday householders were asked to not buy things if they do not need and food planning to reduce food waste
· A lot of campaigns work is carried out on social media but there is also press releases in local papers and magazine advertisements in all boroughs and districts. Adverts in these publications are purposely placed opposite recipes so they were more likely to be seen by our target audience of the household decision maker and also think about reducing food waste and recycling waste from food
· Recent examples of Christmas messages are to buy second hand gifts for Christmas and how to store the mince pies to prevent waste
· Campaigns in January 2023 will focus on what can and should be recycled post-Christmas. This will also include food waste
· The Christmas campaigns take a number of different themes, including ‘elf on the shelf’ style or ‘meme’ style to spread information with funny pictures or messages as these have been proven to work
· Different community events were attended by the team in 2022, these were across the county, except North Warwickshire as the one in Polesworth was cancelled due to the mourning period on the death of the queen. More events were planned for Spring 2023
· Three e-newsletters will go out in December, the first one will focus on how to make less waste at Christmas. The second e-newsletter will focus on reducing food waste at Christmas and recycling food waste. The third will be about how to recycle/dispose of the Christmas tree after Christmas. There are 8000 subscribers to the newsletters with around 4000 actually opening the newsletter.
· There will be a campaign showing step by step how to reduce waste and recycle more while earning points and winning prizes. This was in line with the ‘Slim your Bin’ challenge.
· The school education programme for primary schools will continue, this focuses on composting and recycling assemblies, and plastic or waste free lunches. Pupils get a sticker after the assembly, which asks their parent to talk to them about their learning. 24 of these sessions were held last academic year. 18 schools were visited in the first term of this year with 12 booked in for Spring 2023. Spaces are still available if members have any schools interested. The sessions linked in will with eco-schools.