Coca Cola & Tesco Join Forces to Encourage Recycling

Last month, Coca Cola and Tesco both hit the news as they launched their newest joint venture; an online campaign promoting the benefits of recycling at home, boosting recycling rates in Great Britain.

Recycling is the Answer

The aptly-named ‘Recycling is the Answer’ campaign aims to educate consumers around the country about the benefits of recycling. Through doing so, the companies hope that they will be encouraged to put their knowledge to use and make the effort to recycle.

As added incentive, CCE and Tesco have used their products’ widespread popularity to create more recycling pledges from customers. The one-page spread on the Tesco website invites them to ‘pledge, play and recycle’, as customers are offered either a 50p coupon towards either a can or bottle of Coke or 25 Tesco Clubcard points in exchange for pledging to recycle more.
Customers can receive further free points when they share their pledge on Facebook or Twitter, and there’s even a chance to win 3,000 Clubcard points in a weekly prize draw detailed in a follow-up email received by all those who pledge. Associate Director of Recycling for CCE, Nick Brown, noted of the campaign’s strategies that these techniques of pledge-making and ‘social norming’ are proven to influence consumers and ‘change behaviour’.

Reducing carbon footprint

The central motivation for this campaign, Brown explained, stems from these multinational companies’ ‘shared dedication to reduce our carbon footprint and help customers do the same in their homes’. The issue of carbon footprints and the significance of recycling is one whose severity has been publicised heavily in the past few years, with the ever-increasing environmental problems the planet is noted to be experiencing.

By recycling materials correctly and frequently, fewer manufactured products, such as plastic bottles, will be produced from scratch as they can simply be made from recycled materials. Through this reduction in manufacturing, less carbon dioxide is produced, thus lowering the manufacturer’s carbon footprint and, subsequently, having a positive impact on the environment.

Through this campaign, consumers will be guided through the process of recycling and the various ways in which it can be carried out. David Beardmore, Category Buying Manager for Soft Drinks for Tesco, explained that the campaign should act as a real eye-opener for the general public; an initiative to show ‘how easy at-home recycling can be’.

There are opportunities in and around the home to make these important changes: from knowing the difference between materials, which bins to use or where your local recycling points are, ‘Recycling is the Answer’ provides and simplifies all the information for consumers.

Together, we’re making recycling count

By reaching out to the general public and making this incredibly important process more accessible and enjoyable for them, the campaign hopes to build on and further the success of their prior joint venture, ‘Together, We’re Making Recycling Count’. This 2013 campaign generated around 37,000 pledges, with two thirds of those pledging stating that they now recycle frequently, having not done so prior to the initiative.

An admirable campaign, it is clear that these companies are keen to use their influence for good, and show the general public just how committed they are to helping improve and lessen the environmental impact of production by educating consumers thoroughly and creatively.

At Woodford Recycling, we are dedicated to reducing the environmental impact that our production and our customers’ consumption has on the environment. For more information, get in touch today.