Following their guest blog post earlier this year about how families could reduce their plastic waste, including tips from Hubbub’s #LeedsByExample campaign, the environmental charity is now campaigning to help further improve ways in which we can reduce our household waste.
As the UK becomes increasingly concerned about plastic pollution and sustainability, Leeds residents have already shown the rest of the country how keen they are on recycling on-the-go. The pioneering #LeedsByExample campaign to improve recycling on-the-go has proven a huge success. The number of people recycling paper cups, cans and plastic food and drink packaging in Leeds City Centre has almost doubled during the six-month trial, inspiring other parts of the UK to follow suit, with Swansea and Edinburgh soon to be launching their own initiatives.
The issue of waste
Whilst recycling on-the-go has come a long way, there are still over 600,000 tonnes of waste being thrown away from homes and businesses in Leeds annually according to Leeds City Council – the weight of a small car per resident. However, new research released by the environmental charity Hubbub reveals that the residents of Leeds want to change this, with more than half (51%) saying they want to reduce the amount of waste their household produces.
In the study of 1,000 Leeds residents, the most common moves currently being taken to reduce waste include:
That said, there seems to be reluctance to seek out other used items such as baby/child equipment (23%) and baby/children’s clothes and shoes (24%). Currently, only 29% are switching the products they buy to reduce packaging, for example having milk delivered in glass bottles or using soap instead of bottled handwash, but 55% said they would be willing to do so in the future.
Agree Your Three
The next phase of the #LeedsByExample campaign is the ‘Agree your three’ initiatives, which will find out how much further Leeds locals are willing to go to reduce the waste they throw away and reuse and recycle more.
Over the next week, Leeds residents are being asked to join the conversation and vote on the top three small changes they would be willing to make to reduce the amount they throw away, reuse and recycle more, from a shortlist of 10 already popular actions:
Residents can vote online via www.leedsbyexample.co.uk or in person at a ‘pledge tree’ installation until 11 June at Trinity Leeds shopping centre.
Ideas generated will be used by Leeds City Council to develop a city-wide action plan to tackle waste based on what people most care about.
You can follow the conversation and have your say at:
About Hubbub
Hubbub is a charity which explores innovative ways to interest mainstream consumers in important sustainability issues, through different ‘hubs’ of activity: Food; Fashion; Homes; Neighbourhoods. Hubbub’s previous campaigns have included #SquareMileChallenge, the UK’s first large scale solution to coffee cup recycling, #LeedsByExample to trial new ways to improve recycling on-the-go, #PlasticFishing, launching the world’s first boats made from 99% recycled plastic to raise awareness of and tackle plastic pollution in the UK’s waterways and #FoodSavvy to reduce food waste.
Visit: https://www.hubbub.org.uk/
