Re3 | Simplifying zero-waste at home

Three UK councils — Reading, Wokingham, and Bracknell Forest — partnered with Scrapp® to replace fragmented recycling information with a single digital platform. Since launch, the partnership has processed over 15,000 waste queries, sent 235,000+ bin collection reminders, saved the councils an estimated £25,000+ in operational costs, and prevented 15,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles from entering the environment.

Why do residents still get recycling wrong?

Most people want to recycle correctly. The problem isn't motivation — it's information. Recycling rules vary council by council across the UK, and residents are left piecing together answers from outdated leaflets, inconsistent websites, and council phone lines that can't always give a clear answer on the spot.

For the three councils operating under the Re3 partnership, this played out in predictable ways. Residents struggled to identify which items were recyclable in their area, leading to contamination in recycling streams. Existing information tools were fragmented across multiple platforms, creating inconsistent experiences. And the councils were absorbing the cost — in staff hours spent fielding calls, in printed materials that went out of date, and in contaminated loads that ended up in landfill instead of being recovered.

The numbers behind the problem were significant. Council teams were spending over 1,000 hours annually handling resident recycling queries. Printed guides cost upwards of £10,000 per year — and couldn't keep up with changes to local recycling rules. Contamination rates remained stubbornly high because residents were making their best guess rather than getting a definitive answer.

Re3 needed a way to give every resident across Reading, Wokingham, and Bracknell Forest access to clear, accurate, and consistent recycling information — without adding headcount or printing costs.

How Scrapp gave three councils one unified recycling tool

Scrapp implemented a comprehensive digital platform that replaced the patchwork of information sources with a single, resident-facing tool. The rollout covered all three council areas from day one, ensuring consistent information across boroughs with different recycling infrastructure.

The core of the platform was the Scrapp mobile app, which gave residents two ways to find out how to dispose of any item: barcode scanning for packaged products, and a search function for everyday items without barcodes — coffee cups, food waste, takeaway packaging, and more. Every answer was tailored to the resident's specific council area, so the guidance matched their local recycling rules exactly.

Alongside the app, Scrapp deployed:

• Automated bin collection reminders — pushing notifications to residents ahead of each collection day, eliminating missed pickups and reducing the volume of scheduling queries to council teams
• A unified communication channel for resident questions, with 100% of queries resolved directly through the platform
• A data dashboard giving council teams real-time visibility into what residents were searching for, which items were causing the most confusion, and where contamination risks were highest
• Localised recycling profiles for each borough, ensuring that a resident in Reading got different guidance to a resident in Bracknell Forest where the accepted materials differed

The approach was designed to reduce friction at every point. Instead of asking residents to navigate council websites, interpret recycling symbols, or call a phone line during working hours, the information came to them — in their pocket, at the moment they were standing by the bin.

What the data shows after year one

The results since the March 2024 launch paint a clear picture of what happens when you replace confusion with clarity:

• 15,000+ unique waste queries processed through the platform
• 900 direct resident questions answered and resolved
• 235,000+ bin collection reminders sent
• 100% query resolution rate
• 93% estimated reduction in personal contamination among active users

The cost savings for the councils were equally concrete:

• £15,000+ reduction in employment costs from fewer phone and email queries
• £10,000+ saved in printing expenses by replacing physical guides with digital
• 1,000+ staff hours freed up from handling resident recycling questions
• 250 hours of resident time saved in information searching

These aren't projections. They're measured outcomes from the first year of operation across three council areas serving a combined population of over 500,000 residents.

The environmental impact residents are driving

Every time a resident scans or searches an item through the Scrapp platform, it triggers a contribution through Scrapp's partnership with Plastic Bank — removing ocean-bound plastic from the environment. Since the Re3 launch, residents across Reading, Wokingham, and Bracknell Forest have collectively prevented 15,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles from entering the ocean.

But the deeper environmental impact comes from behaviour change. When residents get a clear, instant answer about what goes where, two things happen. First, contamination drops — items that would have been incorrectly placed in recycling (or thrown in general waste out of uncertainty) end up in the right stream. Second, confidence grows. Residents who trust the system use it more, and the data shows that repeated use compounds the effect over time.

The 93% estimated contamination reduction among active users is significant. Contamination is one of the biggest cost drivers in municipal waste management — a single contaminated load can send an entire collection to landfill. Reducing contamination at source, household by household, has a cascading effect on the entire waste system's efficiency and cost.

For councils under pressure to meet recycling targets while managing tight budgets, this combination of cost reduction, resident engagement, and measurable environmental outcomes is exactly what's needed.

What residents are saying

The platform's success shows up in resident feedback too. During the first year, the team collected user sentiment data that revealed strong demand for expanded coverage — residents actively wanted more products and more items available in the system. This feedback is being used to shape the next phase of development.

What's next for Re3 and Scrapp

Building on the first year's results, Scrapp is focused on several improvements going live in the next phase:

• Expanding the product database to cover more items residents are searching for
• Mapping additional private drop-off points across all three council areas
• Implementing image recognition for difficult-to-identify items
• Developing reward systems to sustain and grow resident engagement over time

The goal is to make the platform the single source of truth for waste and recycling information across the Re3 partnership — replacing every leaflet, every phone call, and every guess with one clear, data-backed answer.

Could your community benefit from clearer recycling information?

If you run a waste or recycling program for a council, municipality, or community and want to reduce contamination, cut query handling costs, and give residents a tool they'll actually use — book a 15-minute call with the Scrapp team.

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