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All change in Torbay!

Resource Futures deliver communications and community engagement activities to ensure successful service change from fortnightly co-mingled to weekly kerbside recycling

In July 2010, an innovative Joint Venture Company, TOR2, was formed between May Gurney and Torbay Council, with responsibility for a range of services including recycling and residual waste collection, highways maintenance, street and beach cleansing, grounds and park maintenance, buildings maintenance and out-of-hours call centre support.

One of the first and most noticeable changes was to the recycling and residual waste services. Torbay had tough recycling and landfill targets which it wasn’t going to hit with their previous service configuration and Torbay residents needed a service that was comparable with neighbouring authorities with recycling and residual waste systems which were as consistent and cost effective as possible.

Resource Futures worked as an integral part of the TOR2 team delivering a range of communications and community engagement activities to ensure new services were communicated properly, awareness and knowledge levels were high and expectations of residents were clear. These included:

  • Councillor briefings
  • Service change letters, leaflets, calendars, box/bin and caddy stickers
  • Website updates incorporating latest news, FAQs and other pertinent and current information
  • Press adverting, press releases and media relations
  • A ‘Waste Doctor’ service undertaking talks, presentations and roadshows and targeted house visits where residents were struggling with the new services
  • A flats team focusing on assessing, upgrading and promoting recycling facilities at blocks of flats with shared recycling facilities
  • Additional call centre support
  • Targeted canvassing in areas likely to struggle with new services
  • Recycling focused school assemblies and workshops using trained teachers to ensure topics were relevant to different ages and related to the curriculum

This project particularly demonstrates Resource Futures’ key strengths and good partnership working and Alastair Campbell of TOR2 said of Resource Futures: ‘Resource Futures has been integral to making this service roll-out a success. Indeed, within the first two weeks of the new services Torbay residents recycled a staggering 670 tonnes of material. This was an 87 per cent increase from the 370 tonnes collected in the last two full week period under the old "two bin" system. We have been very glad to work with a partner who we can trust to deliver their part of the contract on time, to quality and with great insight to the challenges we were facing.’

Torbay Council said of Resource Futures: ‘We were very glad to see that TOR2 were considering using Resource Futures as their communications and community engagement contractor, as we knew, from the schools waste education programme that they already deliver across Devon, that Resource Futures bring a quality and professionalism to the job. We have greatly enjoyed working alongside them during the roll-out and look forward to working with them on more targeted communications work next year.’

Waste Doctors in Torbay

Picture shows: Waste Doctors on hand to support the roll-out of new recycling and residual waste collection services in Torbay

 
 

 

Project Synopses

All change in Torbay!

Resource Futures deliver communications and community engagement activities to ensure successful service change from fortnightly co-mingled to weekly kerbside recycling

Composting in East Sussex

Householders who had never home-composted before, or those who just needed a little support, could contact the Compost Doctors over the phone, by email, at events or at talks and presentations to discuss their composting questions and issues.

Engaging the Residents of North London with Love Food Hate Waste

Resource Futures recruited and managed two embedded Outreach Workers to support the North London Waste Authority’s, WRAP funded, Love Food Hate Waste campaign. During the seven month period, the Outreach Workers organised and delivered over sixty roadshows in supermarkets, businesses, libraries and at community groups, across NLWA’s seven constituent boroughs, to engage more than 3,500 people with the campaign.

News and Events

Community RePaint: A Helping Hand for Hearts and Minds in 2011

In 2011, householders, traders and paint manufacturers donated 343,957 litres of paint to Community RePaint schemes, which then distributed 217,112 litres to community groups and individuals saving 565 tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent of taking 192 cars off our roads - and providing 766 volunteer and training opportunities. The network now has over 65 schemes across the UK with four new schemes about to start at the beginning of 2012.    

Resource Futures helps WRAP understand recent reductions in food waste

Resource Futures has recently helped WRAP to estimate how much household food waste has decreased nationally in recent years, with the recently published “Synthesis of Food Waste Compositional Data 2010” To see the report, click here.