#InTheLoop campaign coming to Ashford Town Centre

Ashford Borough Council and Kent Resource Partnership receive £8,000 of funding to improve recycling on-the-go

• On-street recycling initiative is a partnership between Ashford Borough Council, Kent Resource Partnership, Kent County Council, Litter Lotto, metroSTOR and N+P (dry & mixed recycling processors in Kent), supported by Hubbub and McDonald’s
• Nine eye-catching bins located across Ashford Town Centre encourage residents and visitors to recycle plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans while out and about

Ashford Borough Council and Kent Resource Partnership have received £8,000 of funding to improve recycling on-the-go in Ashford Town Centre. The funding comes from environmental charity Hubbub and McDonald’s new #InTheLoop grant fund that was launched earlier in the year to help local authorities and other organisations boost out-of-home recycling in public spaces.

The funding will go towards investment into new look bins and engaging communications to educate residents and visitors to Ashford’s High Street.

As well as the funding, Hubbub will provide ongoing support based on the charity’s expertise and experience in delivering recycling campaigns, with this campaign set to launch in September 2023.

The new look dual recycling and rubbish bins will collect empty glass and plastic bottles and cans, so these valuable materials can be made into something new instead of going to waste.

First trialled in Leeds in 2018, with support from McDonald’s and other businesses, Hubbub says #InTheLoop is the “UK’s biggest collaborative approach” to boost recycling on the go. Swansea, Edinburgh, Dublin, Wimbledon, Telford & Wrekin and Lambeth have all run similar pilots. Across all these #IntheLoop pilot projects, Hubbub says over 500 bins have been rolled out and over 2.5 million plastic and glass bottles and cans were collected and recycled.

Beau Zilesnick, Project Lead at Hubbub, said: “We’re really excited to support Kent Resource Partnership as part of our ongoing work to encourage recycling on-the-go. With eye-catching bins now in place in twelve locations across the UK and Ireland we are creating consistency and making it easier for people to recycle while out and about. We’re urging everyone to use the new recyclable bins to address littering, boost recycling rates of plastic bottles, glass bottles and cans and reduce waste sent to landfill or incineration.”

Commenting on the funding, Helen McFarlane, McDonald’s Senior Sustainability Consultant, said: “We’re delighted to be funding this piece of work. McDonald’s has been working with Hubbub on their innovative #InTheLoop campaigns for over five years now, and we’re excited that this project builds on all the success we’ve had over the years. We hope that by providing funding to roll out #InTheLoop we can have a lasting impact in the communities we serve.”

Cllr Steve Campkin, Portfolio Holder for Climate and Environment, said: “We are pleased to be the first local authority in Kent to be a part of the #InTheLoop project and to work with Hubbub to make it easier and clearer for our residents and visitors to understand what commonly purchased on-the-go items can be recycled in our town centre.”

About Kent Resource Partnership

The KRP is the unique, multi-award winning waste resource partnership including all 12 of Kent's district/borough councils and Kent County Council. For reference all 13 councils are listed in alphabetical order: - Ashford Borough Council, Canterbury City Council, Dartford Borough Council, Dover District Council, Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Gravesham Borough Council, Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council, Sevenoaks District Council, Swale Borough Council, Thanet District Council, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

The KRP (as the Kent Waste Partnership) was formed in 2007 in order to deliver the Kent Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy (KJMWMS) required of all two-tier areas in the Waste & Emissions Trading Act 2003.

About Hubbub

Hubbub is an award-winning creative charity that inspires action that’s good for the environment and for everyone. Our aim is to revolutionise communications with the public about environmental issues – forming unique collaborations across business and communities, and using behaviour change techniques, everyday language, and good design to make environmental choices desirable and more possible. Hubbub’s work taps into topics people are passionate about and can create big impact such as food, fashion, our homes and communities. Hubbub won the Charity of the Year Award in 2020 and Best Social Media Presence in 2021 at the prestigious Charity Times Awards.

Since 2014, Hubbub has delivered more than 154 trailblazing environmental campaigns in collaboration with over 2,500 partners, helping to shift the national debate on key environmental issues such as food waste, sustainable fashion, reuse and sustainable diets. Hubbub’s campaigns include #InTheLoop which initially brought together 25 of the UK’s largest companies to boost recycling on the high street and through a replicable toolkit has now expanded across seven cities, a 3-year partnership with IKEA to create the world’s largest consumer-facing sustainability campaign ‘Live LAGOM’ and creating a network of over 450 (and counting) Community Fridges across the UK which, in 2022, shared 16.9 million meals worth of surplus food over 1.2 million visits.   

For more information about Hubbub head to the website.