Local schools call for the Bognor Regis community to help children Recycle to Read by taking broken toys to supermarket

Tesco and Hasbro have joined forces with leading not-for-profit environmental education company, Wastebuster, to trial the new Recycle to Read toy campaign and recycling system to turn broken hard plastic toys into books and other reading rewards for UK schools, while supporting children to understand and participate in reuse and recycling. The scheme will be rolled out to further Tesco stores and schools if it proves successful and popular with children, families and Tesco customers in Sussex.

Children and families are encouraged to collect ‘Planet Care Points’ for their school when they drop their broken hard plastic toys into the collection bins in participating Tesco stores or when rehoming reusable toys by swapping with friends and donating to charity, by registering online. Points mean prizes! - with participating schools able to both win free books in weekly prize draws and even more books for finishing higher on the Planet Care Points Leaderboard: www.recycletoread.org/leaderboard as their community collects points for them.

Downview Primary and Southway Primary are are top of the leaderboard for Planet Care Points. Southway Primary have just overtaken Downview Primary on the leaderboard and are now ranking in 1st place!

Schools are competing to secure the most points by the 4th December when the trial ends as the school in first place will win £500 worth of vouchers to spend on books for their school.

As well as taking broken plastic toys to Tesco, both schools have run popular toy swap events which means toys get re-homed and stay in use for longer.

With just one weekend of the campaign left, both Downview and Southway Schools are calling for support from the local community to take their broken, hard plastic toys to their nearest participating Tesco store and drop them into a Recycle to Read collection bin. To earn a Planet Care Point for either school, all you need to do is scan the QR code on the front of the bin and complete a simple form with your email address and nominate Downview or Southway to receive the point.

There are also weekly prize draws for anyone who recycles their toy and registers to collect Planet Care Points for their local school!

Eligible schools can register for free to earn points for books at www.jointhepod.org/toys.

Emma Purkis, Headteacher of Downview School said: “It has been amazing to see the amount of children becoming involved with recycling their toys. School council members have taught us about recycling through the assembly and we had a fantastic response for our toy swap. We have recently had a new library and are very excited about any new books we can earn from this. Our friends of Downview are supporting the school in this and our school is completely supporting this campaign.”

Mike Wood, Principal of Southway School said: “It’s been great to see the whole school get behind the Recycle to read initiative. We are always looking to update our reading resources and any book vouchers we win will go towards some amazing new books for our fantastic library. We have also organised a toy swap for later next week in part for this challenge, but also to help our families out at a very expensive time of year.”

Katy Newnham, founder of Wastebuster said: “Recycle to Read supports families in learning about the environmental benefits of toy rehoming and recycling, while rewarding them with books for taking part. What better way can we inspire and empower children to make pro-environmental choices, than by storytelling with their favourite characters and giving them an opportunity to send their unwanted toys on a new adventure that is good for the planet?”.

The toy initiative is part of the Recycle to Read programme developed by Wastebuster in association with Products of Change, with support from the children’s publishing, brand licencing, toy and entertainment industries and UK waste compliance and recycling companies, to support environmental education, promote and encourage reuse, recycling and create a new infrastructure where needed such as recycling for broken hard plastic toys. With the aim to drive circular solution toys and other items and materials, rewarding schools and communities for coming together to reuse and recycle more, reducing waste wider environmental impacts.