Spotlight on Global Recycling Day

Global Recycling Day 2019 was a huge success. There were 21 events held across the world on and around the 18th March, 671 million people had the chance to hear about Global Recycling Day through media coverage alone, over 6.5 million people were reached on social media and big brands across the world recognised the day through their own initiatives. And this is just the tip of the iceberg!
 
Events ranged from beach clean ups to high school litter picks and football challenges to school visits, and took place across almost every continent, including Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and South America.

Now in its second year, Global Recycling Day was created in 2018 to help recognise, and celebrate, the importance recycling plays in preserving our precious primary resources, lowering global carbon emissions and securing the future of our planet.

15 Official city centre events:
•    Belfast - Trash fashion show
•    Brussels - BIR took part in the #RecyclingGoals challenge
•    Delhi - IICA organised activities to celebrate Global Recycling Day including workshops for children in Delhi and a drawing competition
•    Dubai - Salam Shariff presented to a local school in Dubai on Global Recycling Day to raise awareness
•    Lagos, Nigeria - U-Recycle organised a fashion show with clothes made from recycled materials, a fun fair in the city, an art exhibition partnering with local schools and a series of recycling games
•    London - Pop-up activation on Carnaby Street, public engagement to get people taking part in the #RecyclingGoals challenge.
•    London - The Forest school also completed a clean up in the school gardens
•    Middelburg, South Africa - Recycling Week at Gansiekeur Pre-Premere School – Ilse Bothe spoke to the children about recycling and ‘Recycling into the Future'. Middelburg Preparatory School - school children took part in the #RecyclingGoalsChallenge and were asked to bring PETE bottles to school to build a Recycling Triangle
•    Mumbai - MRAI organised a marathon to celebrate GRD
•    Paris - FEDEREC promoted GRD via a social media campaign
•    Rotherham, UK - BMRA launched a local community campaign called ‘Support your local yard, support your local community’, where members team up with local schools to promote metal recycling.
•    Sao Paolo - EXPOSUCATA promoted GRD across social media
•    Uttar Pradesh, India - Mr Amar Singh & team celebrated #GlobalRecyclingDay by conducting awareness campaign about #Recycling at Aadarsh Prathmik School
•    Washington DC - ISRI sent out a press release, promoted Global Recycling Day across social media and recorded a podcast
•    Washington USA - a beach clean-up with over 60 volunteers

10 unofficial events (what we know of):
•    Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago - The European Business Chamber in Trinidad and Tobago hosted a mix and mingle on 18th March
•    Jaipur - Gravita (recycling company in India) organised a cycling event to promote GRD
•    Gujarat, India - Swatch Barat Mission encouraged people to take a recycling pledge
•    Constantia, South Africa - Sunlight encouraged South Africans to play their part in recycling
•    Aberdeen - Standard Life Aberdeen hosted stalls to promote the importance of recycling
•    Sarajevo, Bosnia - a 30 square metre carpet made from 25,000 plastic bottle caps was created
•    Mongolia - The Asia Foundation, IETC executing partner in Mongolia, organised a series of Brown Bag lunches and video screening, over the course of a week, to raise awareness on the importance of sound waste management and the role we can play as individuals in improving the overall system
•    Nepal - LEAD Nepal, IETC executing partner in Nepal, organised a painting competition for 6-7 graders in Kathmandu on the topic Recycling into the Future, while the Little Recyclers of the future (Grade 1 to 2 students) enjoyed repurposing recyclables into handicrafts
•    Beirut, Lebanon - An exhibition took place in Beirut to mark Global Recycling Day, with items made from recycled goods on display
•    Peshawar, Pakistan - The Environment Society (EnvSoc) of the University of Peshawar held a seminar to raise awareness of Global Recycling Day

Social media
•    @GlbRecyclingDay followers on Twitter increased by 35 times more than average on Monday 18th March
•    @GlbRecyclingDay now has 7,849 followers on Twitter – an increase of 1,140 on the 18 March
•    On the week of Global Recycling Day (17-23 March) Global Recycling Day on Twitter saw 8,474,564 impressions with a reach of 5,501,040
•    #GlobalRecyclingDay was trending on Twitter in the UK for the majority of the day
•    Top contributors on Twitter include:
o    @USAID
o    @Dell
o    @AP_McCoy
o    @Nespresso
o    @Pepsico_EU
o    @Metoffice
o    @DEFRA
o    @IKEA_UK
o    @DeutschePostDHL
o    @VEOLIA_NA
o    @Suez
o    @BBC_Teach
o    @UNICEFBELGIQUE
o    @RecyclingBC
o    @Loreal
o    @walkers_crisps
•    Hashtag performance
o    #GlobalRecyclingDay: 4.7m impressions
o    #RecyclingGoals: 941.8k impressions
o    #GRD2019: 324.2k impressions
o    #CircularEconomy: 23k impressions
•    On Instagram Global Recycling Day saw 185,000 impressions
•    The reach for Global Recycling Day on Instagram was 166,200
•    Follower numbers on Instagram increased by 250 on 18th March 2019, totalling 1,006
•    On Facebook Global Recycling Day saw an increase of 299 followers on 18 March 2019, totalling 11,568
•    The total Reach of Global Recycling Day on Facebook for 18 Feb – 18 March was 862,757
•    On Facebook Global Recycling Day achieved 1,128,501 total impressions between 18 Feb – 18 March
 
Press Coverage
•    275 pieces of coverage AND COUNTING
•    Potential reach of coverage = 687,310,649