During the 2 weeks of the Great British Spring Clean, Brighter Better Orrell did daily posts of guidance of what can be recycled and where. We wanted to highlight local initiatives for people to ‘Spring Clean’ and de-clutter such as dropping books to Orrell book cycle and plastics, batteries etc to our local co-op.
As part of the campaign we looked at harder to recycle items and after a lot of research with Superdrug, Boots and local recycling centers, there was no local option to recycle medicine blister packs. (Many admitted they had been incorrectly putting these in their brown bin)
As a community group, we purchased the Zero Waste bag from Terracycle. Due to Terracycle specializing in more complex recycling, the bag cost £39. We managed to get a small discount as a new user. This cost although seeming steep covers the delivery, the collection from an Inpost locker and then the recycling itself as there’s two materials in the one item.
The feedback on social media was incredible. So many residents were waiting for the bag to be positioned, complimented us on the initiative and were saving their used packs up ready.
We wanted the bag to be in the heart of the community and somewhere that once someone was there, could do other things so we approached Orrell Connect Centre. We wanted people to engage in the community and those that struggle to do this would have the ‘excuse’ almost to be popping in. Orrell Connect Centre houses a post office, café and a large hall with daily groups and activities being held there. They positioned the bag in the post office for us and it was filled within the week. We have since purchased another which is already full and the 3rd is half full already.
The feedback has been amazing and not only are we making Orrell more environmentally friendly, but bringing people to a common place where hopefully friendships are enhanced and formed. For some, this small social interaction can be the highlight of their day.
We would like the bags to be a permanent addition to the community and potentially explore other venues to put these in to encourage the same effect.
The 6 bag bundle currently has a 17% offer making it £195. We would love to pitch for this amount to be able to purchase a further 6 bags and keep this initiative going into 2025.