Once perceived as the 'problem child' of packaging, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury’s have held Tetra Pak up as excellent responsible producers
The challenge
Two years ago, Tetra Pak had a major problem in the UK: few could recycle their cartons due to a lack of recycling infrastructure, which made retailers and customers uncomfortable.
Whilst Tetra Pak created a business strategy to create a UK-wide recycling infrastructure, it fell to us to tell everybody that they were solving the problem.
The business process was not without its complications, so communications had to be carefully-targeted, cleverly-timed, flexible and engaging to both stakeholders and consumers alike.
Our response
Quite simply, we involved everyone in the process so they followed the journey with us as the infrastructure began to be introduced.
The tone of communications was honest in admitting there was a problem, whilst taking pride in the fact that they were the only industry voluntarily and independently-funding an entire recycling infrastructure. We:
- created a report with Forum for the Future to highlight the potential opportunity for carton recycling in the UK
- created a suite of template media materials for every local Council to use to publicise their new carton recycling facilities
- arranged profile interviews with the new Tetra Pak recycling team and ‘six months in’ updates in trade press and regional radio/print
- drove people to www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk to view an interactive carton recycling map
- provided an ‘ideas toolkit’ specifically on cartons for LAs to use during Recycle Week
- launched a national ‘How do you squash yours?’ campaign to encourage recyclers to squash their cartons before recycle to ensure the system was as efficient as possible
- ran a ‘rapid response’ programme to clarify regional or national media inaccuracies on cartons’ recyclability
- ran a stakeholder engagement programme to regularly brief KOFs on developments and new ambitions
The results
- Cartons went from being labelled as not recyclable to receiving “widely recycled” category from WRAP and the BRC
- In the first four months of the scheme launching, we achieved over 300 items of positive regional coverage
- From receiving 4-6 negative articles on recycling each month, our ‘rapid response’ and proactive campaigns reduced this to only one every two months
- We organised just under one media interview every week
- We made Tetra Pak the only packaging manufacturer to be part of the Conservatives’ Responsibility Deals project
