Plastics collection soared 49% in 2021
Recycling outfit eyes greater intake as normality returns to schools
Published:Wednesday | February 9, 2022 | 12:11 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
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Were it not for creativity, a shifting of target market and riding the tides of the pandemic, Recycling Partners of Jamaica (RPJ) said it would not have increased its 2021 collection of plastic bottles by 49 per cent when compared to the previous...
Were it not for creativity, a shifting of target market and riding the tides of the pandemic, Recycling Partners of Jamaica (RPJ) said it would not have increased its 2021 collection of plastic bottles by 49 per cent when compared to the previous year.
RPJ collected 3,505,330lb of plastic in 2021, compared to 2,349,893lb in 2020.
The organisation tallied 2,478,771lb of plastic in 2019.
Candice Ming, marketing and public relations manager of RPJ, said the company depended heavily on the recovery of plastic bottles from schoolchildren to meet their annual collection targets.
However, with the suspension of in-person classes for much of the last 24 months since the COVID-19 outbreak here, the company lost out on most of those collections.
“We tried doing it digitally and just have the schools serve as community drop-off points, but that was not a very successfully endeavour,” Ming told The Gleaner on Tuesday.
“Recycling Partners of Jamaica started in 2014 and our primary source of collection has been primary schools, so you can imagine when COVID hit in 2020, our collections scaled back significantly, at which time we changed directions from focusing on schools to focusing on the wider population.”
The new post-pandemic strategy included going after a wider cross section, scouring communities, partnering with corporate entities, and signing local entertainer Jeffrey ‘Agent Sasco’ Campbell as RPJ’s brand ambassador.
RPJ hopes to restart its in-school bottle-collection programme in April.
SUCCESSFUL MEDIA CAMPAIGN
A major factor behind the company’s success in 2021 was an ongoing media campaign featuring Campbell’s catchy jingle on the airwaves and social media.
On Tuesday, Campbell re-signed with RPJ until 2023. He will be sitting on a committee at RPJ and have a more integral role in community outreach planning and project execution.
Before inking the agreement, Campbell said the collection of plastic bottles “is clearly very important and of national significance, and not just at the moment, but into the future as we try to protect our environment for the generations to come”.
Dr Damien King, executive chairman of the recycling outfit, said the partnership with Campbell has been a “huge bonus”, adding that RPJ wanted “to get an ambassador that is not only liked, that is not only loved by the public, but respected ... as a public figure and as a celebrity”.
Ming agreed.
She said that one of the success stories with Campbell has been a Friendship Gap project through which he has rallied residents of St Mary to try to create a recycling pound. It has grown from plastics to electronics, glass bottles, and aluminium.
“Agent Sasco is not just a face, but also physically involved in the site projects for RPJ. With the signing of this new contract, his responsibilities will be expanded,” Ming said.
“... When you have this kind of passion in a brand ambassador, it’s a no-brainer to re-sign.”