Material Focus

We’re very excited to announce that we have been shortlisted for two PRWeek UK awards:   - ‘In House Team of the Year (public/third sector)’ award - ‘Is FastTech the new Fast Fashion‘ in the Technology category with Welcome to SHOOK The PRWeek UK awards recognises ground breaking campaigns and the teams responsible for them. They are widely accepted as the most prestigious awards in the PR and communications sector. Our small team at Material Focus, through PR and the Recycle Your Electricals campaign, have helped take a critical environmental issue - e-waste - from having low general public awareness to having a UK and global profile in 4 years. It's been a busy year! In just 12 months we went from 1,300 pieces of coverage to 5,280. Highlights included 19 Guardian articles, 15 BBC articles, 4 FT reports and 14 Daily Mail pieces. The PR content is part of an integrated campaign with HypnoCat as our pink messenger. PR has played a key role in the success of the campaign, delivering increased brand recognition, and traffic to our website helping people to take action. Over 800,000 new users have searched ‘recycle your electricals’ and used our postcode locator to find their nearest reuse and recycling point for old and unwanted electricals. We are very grateful to be recognised for our work. A special thank you to all of the various partners who have helped achieve all of these great results and the nomination for this award. Thank you to PRWeek and to everyone we have worked with to make this happen, especially Shook who we have been nominated for the Technology award with. And our other partners Opinium and YouGov who helped us create some of the research that has driven our campaigns. And congratulations and best of luck to all of the other nominees!

🗓️ Mark your calendars for The Great Cable Challenge! In a seemingly increasingly divided world, there is one thing that unites us... Almost all of us have unwanted, broken cables clogging up our drawers, or have binned a flimsy cable when it broke. Every cable contains precious copper, a material essential in everyday things that we take for granted – like our phones, our transport, clean energy, lifesaving medical equipment and our green future. And currently thousands of kilograms of copper are idle in our drawers or going to waste in landfill, instead of being repurposed or recycled. Enter The Great Cable Challenge! – a UK-wide challenge to recycle 1 million cables in the run up to International E-Waste Day (14th October). 🔌 It’s easy to get involved! We’re looking for local communities, charities, community groups, retailers, schools and universities across the UK who can: ➡️ Set up a pop-up cable and small electricals collection in their office, community, school or local area; or ➡️ Promote the campaign across their channels Join the millions already recycling their electricals, and take one small action to help make a big difference this October. Download our Great Cable Challenge toolkit today to access a step-by-step guide for setting up a collection, social media and newsletter templates and more: https://bit.ly/3LsDxsA Need more help? We'd be happy to provide personalised support and we are keen to hear your ideas! Get in touch with us at hello@materialfocus.org.uk. *IEWD (14th Oct) is a key moment to raise awareness of electrical waste as the fastest growing source of waste in the world, and in the UK. It was founded by the WEEE Forum, the international association representing producer responsibility organisations. The UK lead member is REPIC Ltd and IEWD is open to anyone and everyone to get involved and support. #EWasteDay #GreatCableChallenge #RecycleYourElectricals #WEEEForum #sustainability #RecycleYourElectricals #environment

Donating old, working electricals is a great way to keep them in use for longer and reduce e-waste. In fact, research has shown that 74% of UK adults would donate to charity shops if only that option were available. That’s why we’re excited to partner with Sue Ryder on a pilot project to take back old electricals for donation and recycling! The initiative is led by Material Focus, in partnership with Sue Ryder, and supported by Currys plc. It will be a 3-month trial in 10 Sue Ryder stores across London. All donors will receive a £5 Currys Cash for Trash voucher. Read the full list of Sue Ryder stores and press release here: https://bit.ly/4cei2HN There are 108 million unwanted electrical items gathering dust in Londoners’ homes, averaging 31 items per household. Many of these items are still in working order and could be given a new lease of life or donated to those in need. This collaboration between Material Focus and Sue Ryder not only helps reduce e-waste but will also help provide funding for the work of Sue Ryder - to provide compassionate care and support. We are looking for more charity retail partners to extend this trial and provide more donation points for unwanted electricals across the UK. If you are a charity and are interested in becoming an electrical donation point, please contact projects@materialfocus.org.uk.

Cats may rule the jungle, but can you help HypnoCat conquer the waste sector?! 😻👑 Forget the General Election; the real excitement is with Resource Media's annual Resource Hot 100, celebrating the superstars of waste and resources. 🌟 This year, cast your vote for HypnoCat, the dazzling and mesmerising maestro behind our award-winning Recycle Your Electricals campaign. He’s already got purrrrsuasive charm, but your vote could crown him the most majestic of felines. A reminder of why HypnoCat is worthy of your vote: 📍He has helped bring over 22,000 repair, donation and recycling points to Recycle Your Electricals’ best-in-class locator: https://bit.ly/3RFNINO 📺 He’s the star of a national TV campaign and the catchy earworm you can’t stop singing: https://bit.ly/4eAPZDX 🐾 He’s making a paw-sitive impact, hypnotising millions of people across the UK to reuse and recycle their electricals, one cable at a time Vote for HypnoCat! Votes close 31st July https://lnkd.in/djFCfXMM

Check out the Channel 4 Dispatches exposé from Friday night. "Rubbish Tip Britain" takes a look inside the lucrative world of waste crime, focussing on fly-tipping and non-compliant landfill sites. On the programme, Scott Butler spoke about this issue alongside other industry experts. https://lnkd.in/e4sTrpw6 The Dispatches research builds on Material Focus funded “Fly-tipping and unregistered waste carriers in England” research conducted by Air & Space Evidence Ltd that was published in 2021. The research revealed for the first time strong evidence of connected organised networks of unregistered waste carriers across the UK. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of the 239k businesses or individuals in England that are offering to handle waste when advertising their services appear to be unregistered. 1.8 million tonnes of waste are flytipped each year, including 87k tonnes of waste electricals. Records show that there were nearly 1 million recorded instances of fly-tipping on public land in England in 2019/20.  https://lnkd.in/eMK5iUZw Fly-tipping and waste crime are major issues that need action. Environmental damage is being caused, valuable materials that could be recovered are being wasted, and the public are suffering the consequences and paying the clean up bills. It will be interesting to see what attention they receive post the upcoming election.

🌟We won an award! 🌟 We’re thrilled to be awarded Recycling Project of the Year at BusinessGreen’s UK Green Business Awards. Our nationwide Recycle Your Electricals campaign was recognised as a wide-ranging and impactful project tackling the UK’s e-waste mountain and raising awareness of the environmental footprint of new forms of ‘FastTech’. As shared by the judges, “The memorable and engaging campaign was praised by judges for boosting understanding of the need to recycle waste electricals.”  Thank you to BusinessGreen for this prestigious award, and congratulations to all those innovative organisations nominated in this and all the other categories. A big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last four years since launching the campaign – our partners, stakeholders, agencies, those who helped amplify the message and (of course!) those who are reusing and recycling their electricals. Lastly a huge shout out to the Material Focus team – this recognition is a testament to their hard work, creativity and dedication, and a reflection of our commitment to creating a world where materials are never wasted.  Here’s to many more milestones and successes ahead!

Are you looking for a job in sustainability? Are you passionate about driving meaningful change?  🌟 then don’t miss the chance to join our team at Material Focus! 🌟 Applications are closing this Sunday for two fantastic opportunities to join our award-winning organisation and make a significant impact on the environment: Local Authority Partnerships Officer: https://bit.ly/3Rv3DyD ➡️ Play a crucial role in establishing and nurturing partnerships with local authorities. ➡️ Drive impactful projects aimed at improving recycling and waste management. ➡️ Be at the forefront of creating sustainable solutions and reducing waste in communities. Environmental Partnerships Officer: https://bit.ly/3RBbRoN ➡️ Lead initiatives and collaborations with various stakeholders to promote environmental compliance. ➡️ Support the compliance outreach programme of work ➡️ Work closely with partners to implement effective strategies and solutions. At Material Focus, we are dedicated to making it easier for people across the UK to reuse and recycle their electricals. If you are a self-starter who is passionate about the environment and looking to make a difference, we want to hear from you! 📌 How to apply: Applicants must apply via Prospectus. Read the full job description and how to apply for both roles on our website. #Hiring #JobOpportunity #EnvironmentalJobs #Sustainability #Recycling #MaterialFocus #JoinOurTeam

🌟We won an award! 🌟 We’re thrilled to be awarded Recycling Project of the Year at BusinessGreen’s UK Green Business Awards. Our nationwide Recycle Your Electricals campaign was recognised as a wide-ranging and impactful project tackling the UK’s e-waste mountain and raising awareness of the environmental footprint of new forms of ‘FastTech’. As shared by the judges, “The memorable and engaging campaign was praised by judges for boosting understanding of the need to recycle waste electricals.”  Thank you to BusinessGreen for this prestigious award, and congratulations to all those innovative organisations nominated in this and all the other categories. A big thank you to everyone who has supported us over the last four years since launching the campaign – our partners, stakeholders, agencies, those who helped amplify the message and (of course!) those who are reusing and recycling their electricals. Lastly a huge shout out to the Material Focus team – this recognition is a testament to their hard work, creativity and dedication, and a reflection of our commitment to creating a world where materials are never wasted.  Here’s to many more milestones and successes ahead!

It's not just tents, plastic bottles and general waste that will get abandoned at festivals this summer... While some festivals are announcing plans to ban disposable vapes, many vapes will inevitably get through the entrance gates. Other festivals may host vape retailers on-site for festival goers to buy at the event. With the continued rise of vapes on the market and a national ban not yet in place, it's important festival and events teams consider how vapes - and other electricals which make their way on site - will be handled. Our comprehensive toolkit aims to help festival and events organisers encourage good practice, including information on: ✅ Onsite retailer obligations ✅ Communicating with your waste contractors ✅ Communicating with your audience ✅ Setting up vape and electrical recycling bins (including funding opportunities) Download the toolkit here: https://bit.ly/4aUUt5p If you are interested in exploring partnership opportunities or would like more information, please contact rowan@materialfocus.org.uk #festivals #sustainability #vapes #environment #recycling

📣 Don't miss our next webinar this Wednesday 22nd May, 1-1.30pm! 📣 We'll be discussing our next round of funding for the Electricals Recycling Fund, as well as upcoming campaigns like International E-Waste Day. Sign up here to register for the webinar: https://lnkd.in/eAfWmdQb