Recycle Now and Radley Yeldar win Gold Smiley Award at the OCFA Charity Film Awards

We’re delighted to share that ‘Let’s Get Real’ – the film central to WRAP’s Recycle Week 2022 – has picked up a Gold Smiley award at the OCFA charity film awards, winning in the £20-50m turnover category where it was up against strong contenders from Barts, Scout Association, Samaritans, Diabetes UK, Breast Cancer Now and The Bible Society.

 

‘Lets Get Real’ unpacks what really happens to our recycling in a fast-paced, behind-the-scenes journey through a recycling facility. With ‘wishcycling’ on the rise (attempting to recycle the un-recyclable, and contaminating collections in the process), it aims to educate us about what can and can’t be recycled and encourage behaviour change. It also drives people to the Recycling Locator, an online search tool that explains what is accepted within each postcode throughout the UK.

 

Sponsored by waste management company Biffa, it was filmed at the Aldridge MRF recycling plant near Birmingham. To bring the story to life, we used eight cameras which included several timelapses and a drone. The creative use of go-pros – swooping over dunes of recycling, weaving them through machinery, plunging them down chutes – helped us achieve our vision of showing a recycling plant in a way people had never seen it before, bringing these complex processes to life in a fun and accessible way.

 

The award win is a testament to the overall success of Recycle Week 2022 and its power to help the public to be more mindful of what they put in their recycling bins.

 

Craig Stephens, Consumer Marketing and Campaigns Manager at WRAP says: "I’m delighted that we have received this award as recognition of all the hard work that went into creating such an impactful and honest portrayal of the reality of a recycling plant. This film provided the motivation to encourage citizens to recycle more of the right items from home.”

 

Evi Pagrati, Consumer Marketing and Campaigns Lead at WRAP says: “Recycle Week has been shaping recycling behaviours for almost 20 years bringing together citizens, local authorities and businesses. This award is one more reason to keep us going and improve recycling rates and systems aiming to achieve even more in the years to come. We’re grateful for our partnership with Radley Yeldar, which continues to deliver impressive results.”

 

The Charity Film Awards is the world’s biggest campaign to promote cause-based films. Since its creation, more than 2,500 causes have benefitted – gaining exposure, donations and volunteers. The awards, sponsored by TikTok and powered by Smiley Movement, are recognised by both BFI and IMDb. This year’s ceremony was hosted by comedian Tom Allen, and held at the Odeon Leicester Square, with all 950 seats filled with guests from nominated companies including Asda, Allianz, Costa and the NHS.

 

Thank you to all our partners involved in this project, and to everyone that voted.

 

Check out all the winners here and watch our winning film below.