Launched this week, ‘Recycle for London’ will run until the end of the Christmas season, during which households produce more rubbish, according to the GLA.
A spokeswoman said: ‘We want people to think about recycling things they would not normally think about, such as Christmas trees, wrapping paper, Christmas cards, tins and aerosol cans.’
The campaign kicked off this week with an event attended by London Mayor Ken Livingstone and endorsed by celebrity gardener Charlie Dimmock. It is the second time the GLA has run the campaign, with last year’s push encouraging residents to start recycling.
The campaign this year is operating on more of a local level. Trimedia Communications is managing the campaign and has commissioned two designers to create an outfit made from second-hand textiles, which will be unveiled at London Fashion Week in February. Director, Colette Flannigan said: ‘We have signed up Jacques and Joseph Azagury to design the outfit.’
London artist Kelly Dearsley has been commissioned to create a sculpture, which is to tour local shopping centres and arts fairs in London.
The push will include a £3.5m ad campaign with the strapline ‘London, let’s recycle more’, which will appear in local newspapers and on the London Underground.
It is hoped the campaign will help the capital reach its European Union requirement of recycling 25 per cent of all household waste by 2005. In 2003, only 11 per cent of waste was recycled; there are no preliminary figures available for this year.
Flannigan said: ‘The landfill sites that London uses will be full in a couple of years so we have to encourage people to care for their environment.’
Trimedia was one of six agencies appointed to the GLA’s roster in July. It won the first brief after a non-competitive pitch.
The other agencies on the roster are QBO Bell Pottinger, Fishburn Hedges, The Forster Company, GCI London and London Communications Agency and Good Relations.
