Recycle to Read Toys
Around 318 million toys are sold in the UK every year* of which the majority are manufactured from plastic or contain plastic components. However, there is currently limited infrastructure to collect and recycle plastic toys.
Recycle to Read is developing a new toy collection and recycling infrastructure that rewards schools with books to support children’s literacy.
How does it work?
We’ve teamed up with Harper Collins to reward schools with exclusive book discounts for collections of broken plastic toys. The Harper Collins Recycle to Read Book Catalogue has a fantastic range of fiction and non-fiction books for early years up to 11 year olds. There’s something for everyone!
School Collections
We are currently operating toy box collection trials in schools. Participating schools are provided with a campaign pack, access to a wide range of free education resources on toy reuse and recycling and exclusive book discounts in the Harper Collins Recycle to Read Book Catalogue. The school collections trial programme is currently fully subscribed. We will notify all schools on the waiting list if more places come available and will offer future places on a first come first served basis.
If your school was part of the 2022 pilot programme and you still have boxes that you would like to have collected, please email collections@wastebuster.co.uk.
Retail Collections – Coming Soon!
We believe recycling should be easy and available to all, so we are working together with the toy industry to offer collections of broken plastic toys in supermarkets across the UK.
People who drop off their broken toys will be able to nominate a registered school to earn book reward vouchers that can be spent on books in the Harper Collins Recycle to Read Book Catalogue. If you would like to be notified when your school community can start collecting book rewards for your school sign up now.
Supporting Resources
Schools actively participating in all Recycle to Read collections will be provided with a campaign pack and wide range of supporting resources to bring the topic of reuse and recycling to life in the classroom.
NEW! Login to the Pod to watch our new toy recycling film and download the accompanying infographic poster showing how broken plastic toys can be recycled into great new things. A fantastic resource to use for exploring material science.
How do I take part?
- Login to the Pod (Register for a free account with the Pod if you don’t already have one) and sign up to take part in Recycle to Read Toys.
- You will be informed of all opportunities to take part in Recycle to Read Toys.
For further information about this programme, please see our FAQs.
*Source: www.statista.com/statistics/374189/uk-toy-sales-volume-united-kingdom/