WRAP launches TV campaign on recycling
The UK NGO releases its ‘Rescue Me’ advert with support from Sky Media.
Airing across Sky channels from this week, the campaign is designed to inspire people to recycle more and accelerate the shift towards better use of resources.
Research from WRAP reveals that, while 89% of UK households regularly recycle, 79% admit they throw away at least one kind of item that could have been recycled, while the average household typically misses two to three such items.
The NGO also finds confidence about what can and cannot be recycled remains low, with just 9% of people feeling ‘very confident’ about what can be recycled.
In the campaign, creative agency Among Equals assigns human traits, emotions and voices to commonly binned household items, such as toilet roll tubes, perfume bottles and aerosols, reframing recycling as an act of ‘rescue’.
By personifying household waste materials, the advert aims to inspire people to care for them more and improve their confidence in recycling.
It supports the long-running ‘Recycle Now’ campaign across social media and other digital channels, culminating in the annual ‘Recycle Week’, which will take place from 14-20 September 2026.
WRAP says recycling just one additional toilet roll tube per household each week could save enough energy to power over 26,000 homes for a year.
Sky Media’s Sky Zero Footprint Fund, which offers £2mln in media value to support organisations driving environmental change, provided WRAP with £200,000 in advertising funding for winning its Catalyst category.
The category targets charities and not-for-profits that deliver meaningful impact but face barriers to scaling awareness.
Sky’s data-led targeting capabilities will help the campaign reach relevant audiences at scale to drive more measurable impact, improve recycling accuracy, increase capture rates and support the UK’s transition to a low-carbon, circular economy.
Watch ‘Rescue Me, Recycle’ on YouTube, or across Sky channels.
