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Battery recycling campaign

#BringBackHeavyMetal Raising the volume of battery recycling all the way up to 11!

Making noise about battery recycling!

Following a missed UK battery collection target, we commissioned research that revealed a staggering number of used batteries are stored in households across the UK. It was clear that action was required, so we set up a unique coalition of partners to help us turn up the volume of battery recycling. The result? The annual #BringBackHeavyMetal campaign that runs throughout the month of October!

The #BringBackHeavyMetal campaign highlights research undertaken by Hubbub and Ecosurety, revealing that whilst the UK missed the battery collection target in 2016 and 2017, 60% of people hoard batteries in their houses, adding up to a whopping 178 million batteries stashed in UK homes!

The contents of batteries, particularly the heavy metals, are toxic and can be hazardous to the environment if not disposed of properly. Despite this, 52% of survey respondents admitted throwing batteries away in the regular waste, with 34% of people not knowing where to dispose of them correctly.

This results in millions of batteries every year ending up in landfill, with the potential to leach toxic materials into the ground and water supplies if not carefully managed. The survey was conducted by Censuswide of a representative sample of 3,055 UK adults in August 2017.

Super-charged promotion

The campaign uses a wide range of consumer focused promotional content including viral videos, social media content, in-store collateral and a dedicated website. As main supporter in 2018 Currys PC World promoted the campaign in 322 stores and also directly to their customers when delivering products to their homes. Meanwhile The Entertainer, Lidl, Sainsbury's and Morrisons supported the campaign online.

www.bringbackheavymetal.co.uk

The dedicated #BringBackHeavyMetal website provides a focal point for the campaign and an engaging way to find out more about battery recycling. Three viral videos depict common frustrations with batteries languishing in drawers, boxes and cupboards - and the joyous transformation that bringing back heavy metal can inspire!

The website also features a recycling locator tool, powered by WRAP, that enables visitors to find their nearest recycling point. There is also more information about the social media promotion on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

So what are you waiting for? Check it out now

In-store promotion

The eye-catching collateral is continued off-line too, with posters, badges and stickers displayed in the 322 Currys PCWorld stores.

Powering collections

In 2017 Currys PC World revealed an incredible 64% increase in battery collections during the month of the campaign (compared to the same period in the previous year). As the main partner of the campaign in 2018, Currys PC World helped to boost this even further by collecting used batteries from customer's doorsteps when they deliver new products.

High voltage PR

In 2017 the campaign also achieved an impressive level of PR with over 58M opportunities to see or hear it across print, online and radio. This was made up of 53 pieces of coverage including interviews on BBC Radio and features in The Guardian, The i and yahoo.com. This combined with over 9.5M impressions on social media to create quite a spark of interest!

#BringBackHeavyMetal goes viral

The campaign inspires some passionate social media activity, with members of the public sharing a metal hand selfie along with the #BringBackHeavyMetal hashtag to help spread the word about battery recycling.

BBHM selfie 2 BBHM selfie 8 BBHM selfie 3 BBHM selfie 7

“We always aim to ensure as many batteries as possible are handed in at Currys PCWorld for recycling and #BringBackHeavyMetal provides a great focal point for our work in this area. We look forward to playing a key role in making the campaign a real success.” Matt Manning Photo

Matt Manning Compliance & Recycling Operations Manager, Dixons Carphone

Can you support the campaign?

Do you host battery collection points for consumers? Can you support #BringBackHeavyMetal in-store or on social media to crank up the volume even further? Awesome! Then grab your leather jacket and hit the button below to start to conversation.

Created with Hubbub

This project is made possible by our partnership with Hubbub, a charity that creates environmental campaigns with a difference.

Hubbub is an environmental charity that uses the latest thinking backed by academic research to explore new ways to run behaviour change campaigns. The charity explores innovative and fun ways to interest mainstream consumers in important sustainability issues, through different ‘hubs’ of activity - Food, Fashion, Homes, and Neighbourhoods.

Hubbub’s previous campaigns have included #SquareMileChallenge, the UK’s first large scale solution to coffee cup recycling, #GiftABundle to get pre-loved baby clothes back into circulation and #PumpkinRescue to encourage more people to eat the carvings from their Halloween Pumpkins.

Their exclusive collaboration with Ecosurety will see two consumer-facing campaigns a year, funded by producer responsibility compliance evidence money, created and executed by Hubbub. The partnership between Ecosurety and Hubbub will also see regular canvassing of opinion from obligated producers and recyclers about which issues or campaigns should be prioritised across producer responsibility compliance.