Barley Communications was appointed by Staffordshire County Council to devise a campaign to boost plastic bottle recycling, with the aim of saving 46 million bottles from the County’s waste stream each year. Despite increased awareness about the environmental importance of reusables and reusing plastic bottles, Staffordshire residents alone still use millions and throw away four in 10.

To help address the issue, Barley devised Plastic Bottles: Recycle One and All, a campaign that simply asked residents to recycle at least one more plastic bottle a week in their home recycling bin. Through social activity, it highlighted that despite misconceptions, any bottle can be recycled – not just milk and fizzy drinks, but all food, drink, bathroom and most plastic chemical bottles – and how best to recycle them. Residents were also shown inspiring examples of how recycled plastic bottles can be turned into useful things like park benches, road bollards and car batteries.

As research found that households with primary school-aged children were most likely to not recycle sufficiently, a central part of the campaign was community engagement in schools. Schools were invited to enter a competition whereby the most engaged one had the chance of winning a set of playground equipment made from recycled plastic. A Plastic Bottle ‘Coconut Shy’ fair type game also toured participating schools, getting pupils to learn about recycling in a fun way.

As the campaign launched in late February, shortly before schools shut due to COVID-19, activity had to be postponed, so results are not yet available.

The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) challenged Barley to create a PR campaign to engage 16-24-year-old Londoners with the environmental issues posed by fast fashion and encourage them to consider more sustainable alternatives.

We provided full-service communications support steeped in audience insights, which led us to the #LoveNotLandfill campaign title and an integrated communication strategy covering traditional media, influencer relations and social outreach. All activity had the broader aim of driving behavioural change, ensuring clothes last longer, are reused and recycled, and are diverted away from landfill and incinerators.

There have been LOADS of campaign highlights – brokering a partnership with anonymous street artist Bambi to create an exclusive piece of artwork is definitely up there! See the video below for more…

Ali Moore, Head of Communications and Behaviour Change at LWARB said: “Working with Barley Communications on our #LoveNotLandfill campaign has been not only enjoyable but hugely fruitful: we were overwhelmed by the attention and support that Barley helped us achieve. They didn’t just deliver media relations but helped us with the whole approach, including ideas generation, social media management and film production. They also hooked us up with some great partners, collaborators and creative specialists along the way. The whole Barley team has been enthusiastic, cheerful and eminently practical at every stage – a flexible and responsive communications agency who’ve delivered reach, impact and engagement beyond our expectations.”

We’re supporting North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to deliver its Residual Waste Reduction Plan, which aims to reduce the amount of waste north London householders throw away.

We devise and deliver proactive behaviour change campaigns that inspire audiences to reduce their environmental impact. We have created agenda-topping stories and delivered compelling social media activations on food waste, furniture upcycling, clothes swaps and the scourge of recycling contamination from nappies.

Our recent single-use plastics campaign to encourage a switch to reusable facemasks has achieved coverage across national and regional media including Sky News, The Independent, The Week and LBC and we are delighted that the ‘Swish and Style’ clothes swap project has been shortlisted for the edie Sustainability Leaders Awards 2021.