North Tyneside Council
February 13, 2015North Tyneside Council were looking for an innovative way to encourage recycling in the region and Wybone had the solution! The Recyclo wheelie bin cover was adapted to include bespoke modifications including a solar powered sensor to speak to users when they deposited litter in the bin.
In order to encourage recycling, local schoolchildren were invited to record voice messages that are played to the user when they recycle using the bins. Messages include:
“Thank you from the young people of North Tyneside for recycling.”
“I love recycling – feed me!”
“Great! More recycling, thank you!”
“Recycling only, thank you”.
The children were also involved in a competition to design posters to be featured on the side of the talking bins, with the top four designs being displayed.
The drive was part of a larger waste campaign, ‘Changing Our Thinking’ which was launched earlier in the year and provides rewards and incentives to encourage residents to recycle. The scheme also gives advice and information to the public on how they can reduce the waste that they produce and make use of food leftovers.
The Council’s Regulatory Manager, Catherine Lyons said of Wybones bins “A chatting bin will be a real talking point and I’m sure many will want to try it out.
It’s an extremely innovative and engaging way to encourage more people to recycle, and supports the councils aim of increasing recycling rates in the borough, from 38,000 tonnes collected each year to 45,000 tonnes by 2017.”
“Although we are putting in place a number of initiatives to achieve this target, we also need everyone to understand that waste is not just a council problem and we all have responsibility to ensure we do our upmost to reduce, reuse and recycle the rubbish we produce.”