Reconomy Group company Valpak and Bower collaborate for brand advantage

A new collaboration between Reconomy Group brand Valpak and the Bower recycling rewards app will drive recycling and brand benefits.

The award-winning Bower app educates and rewards consumers for recycling packaging items, while also helping brands to reach sustainability goals, strengthen their brand and gain insights into recycling and purchase habits.

Steve Gough, CEO at Valpak, said: “Bower ticks a range of boxes for business. As well as meeting the demands of Plastic Packaging Tax by driving greater levels of recycled plastic into the system, brands gain access to valuable insights and a direct way to promote products to customers. With over 58 million items recycled through the app already, Valpak is keen to bring Bower to our customers as it expands into the UK. It’s another demonstration of Reconomy Group’s drive to enable the circular economy through technology and partnerships.”

When consumers scan items, they receive instructions on how to recycle, and the option to redeem a range of rewards – from cash and charity donations to product coupons. Participating brands have access to rich data metrics such as carbon savings and consumer behaviour patterns. Brands are also able to link directly to their consumers through brand visibility every time their product is recycled, as well as offering opportunities such as consumer coupons, recycling challenges, competitions or enabling users to plant a tree.

The Scandinavian brand, which has half a million users signed up, entered the UK six months ago. Under the new collaboration, the app will link to Valpak’s recycle-more website, while brands signed up to Valpak’s compliance service will receive free integration for 50 products, as well as being able to add product recycling instructions, packshots that show up when consumers scan other products, and brand coupons.

Bower reports that 48 per cent of users recycle more packaging thanks to the app. Louise Nygaard Rønne, Head of Business Development at Bower, said: “The app is designed to be a playful way to drive real change. The onus is increasingly on brands to do the right thing, but we also need to rely on consumers to get it right. Reaching packaging circularity is like any other ecosystem – we depend on each other and need everyone to join the movement, to work in partnership to succeed.”

Join Bower and unite with the world's largest brands to shape and accelerate the recycling movement. Discover more about Bower and the Valpak collaboration at: https://www.valpak.co.uk/sustainability/bower-recycling-app/

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Editors notes

Valpak’s mission is to create a sustainable, waste-free world. We are driven, not by today. We are driven by tomorrow.

We help our clients to reduce waste and recycle more, continually innovating and using leading data science and expertise to inspire businesses, help push ourselves – and our industry – forward. We don’t just show our customers how to navigate waste regulations; we help them become more sustainable, through our ever-increasing capabilities and pioneering innovations.

Valpak is the largest environmental compliance scheme in the UK. We work with major names, such as Aldi, Tesco, ASOS, and Miele, and manages compliance for more than 2,000 businesses. In 2017, it celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Valpak is a Reconomy Group company. Reconomy Group is an innovative, tech-led provider of services to enable the circular economy, with the purpose of creating a truly sustainable world by conserving finite resources. Enabling businesses around the world to improve their ESG outcomes, the Reconomy Group delivers value through its unique set of integrated capabilities - Recycle, Comply and Re-use.​

Reconomy Group serves businesses of all sizes in the following sectors: retail, hospitality, leisure, manufacturing, facilities management, transport and logistics, construction, house building and infrastructure.

Valpak services include:

• Compliance under Waste Packaging, WEEE, and Battery Directives.
• Data insights.
• International compliance.
• Recycling services (total waste management options and solutions for niche materials).
• Consultancy.
• Accreditation under environmental schemes, such as Zero Waste to Landfill. 

Valpak invests in pioneering systems and expertise which enable its customers to analyse, assess and improve product design. The Product Data Hub, Insight Platform and dedicated teams work together to drive change.