Residents to be tempted to recycle more

Date published: 13/10/2005

Millions of households across England will be tempted to recycle more of their rubbish and cut down their waste with many local authorities offering prize draws, cash rewards and community gifts from this month.

Around 50 schemes across the country will pilot, test and assess various approaches to incentivise people to recycle and reduce waste.

Across the Rochdale Council area, the council are repeating the hugely successful “Trees for Dreams“ scheme that last year saw over 1500 Christmas Trees donated by local residents, that saw one lucky family benefit from an Airtours holiday of a lifetime in Florida.

This year the Dreams Come True Charity will be choosing the winner and D’Arcy Myers, Chief Executive of children’s charity Dreams Come True, comments: “The Charity is delighted to be working with Rochdale and Salford Waste Collecting and Disposal Authorities to make a ‘dream come true’ for deserving children this Christmas. The success of the scheme very much depends on the participation of residents who are being encouraged to recycle their Christmas trees. Every tree recycled contributes to another dream being made possible, which can mean so much to the children, many of whom are terminally and seriously ill, and their families. 

“With Christmas traditionally being a time of giving, Trees for Dreams is a great way to really light up a child’s life, if just for one day, and we look forward to a fantastic response from the residents of Rochdale and Salford.”

Local Environmental Quality Minister, Ben Bradshaw said he hoped that the schemes would not only encourage regular recyclers to recycle more, but would help to engage with people who have yet to start recycling regularly.

“Getting people to change their behaviour is a challenge, and recycling is no exception. While there are millions of dedicated recyclers, there are still many families and people who have yet to start recycling regularly.

“We want to find new ways to encourage these people to start recycling and help regular recyclers by making it easier for them to fit recycling into their lives.”

The results from the Trees for Dreams initiative announced today will provide an evidence base for future policy development in this area, and guidance to local authorities on best practice.

It complements ongoing work by Defra and WRAP to find new ways to encourage people to recycle more of their waste, including work with retailers to make it easier to recycle at supermarkets.

Tara Dumas, Waste Minimisation Manager at RMBC added: “Trees for Dreams” is an excellent way of helping achieve our recycling targets. Currently we recycle 14% of our rubbish and need to achieve 20%. Everybody wins with this initiative and we can all help benefit those less fortunate than ourselves.”