Repak Inspires Ireland to Recycle More Creatively

Repak, the organisation with 3500 member businesses and a remit  to work to help Ireland achieve its EU recycling targets has launched an ambitious new campaign to change the way Ireland recycles packaging.

The campaign – ‘The Most Sorted' calls on businesses and public to reduce the amount of packaging that goes to waste by sending material ‘Clean, Dry and Loose’ to recycling.   – It is the second national campaign from lead strategic and creative agency The Brill Building since 2022’s Re-imagine and is delivered with media agency Core, PR from Teneo, Social from Group M Invention and web from Kooba.

The integrated campaign creative takes a distinctive and creative approach to its behaviour change message with the visual effects in TV, OOH, Social and web showing what might happen if we could see the packaging lingering in the atmosphere rather than ‘out of sight out of mind’.  

It aims to motivate the people of Ireland to recycle more of their packaging and recycle them correctly, while supporting the member businesses who commit to recycling their packaging correctly to help Ireland live in a circular economy.

The organisation’s figures show if more of Ireland’s packaging was disposed on in this way, it could divert just over half a million tonnes to recycling. The claim appears throughout the campaign at key points.

There are ambitious plastic recycling targets of 50% by 2025 and 55% by 203050 and Repak have previously sounded the alarm that we need a step change in our approach to recycling to achieve the greener future consumers say they want.

Newly appointed CEO of Repak, Zoe Kavanagh commented on organisation's ambitious agenda, “Research conducted for Repak in two phases in 2023 and 2024 identified that businesses and the public want to do the right thing when it comes to recycling but often are unsure how. Worse, at its most extreme, this can manifest as a ‘Better to do nothing than do it wrong’ fear so it was very important for the campaign not just to educate on proper recycling but to motivate from a place that is supportive, hopeful and positive. We are excited to help achieve more for Ireland and the planet’s future."

The campaign was created by The Brill Building team of ECD and creative strategist Roisin Keown, creative lead Peter Snodden and copywriter John McMahon, project lead Eleanor McCarthy with design by Shane O’Riordan. Award-winning Irish production company Banjoman with director Henry Littlechild and post production house Gabha created the audio visual spots including TV, Online formats and Cinema with music from Le Boom’s Christy Leech. The distinctive Out Of Home was shot and produced with photographer Liam Murphy.

“From moment we saw the script we knew Henry Littlechild would be perfect to help bring it to life. The Brill creative team with Gabha and and Henry worked tirelessly over a number of weeks to deliver a final film worthy of the creative.”

Roisin Keown, CEO and ECD, The Brill Building, said, “The challenge was to create communications that were distinctive, unlike standard public messaging to achieve the standout and memorability we always strive for. We’re really appreciative of the trust the Repak team have placed in the idea to achieve something surprising and that should result in a step-change for Ireland’s recycling habits.”