DC Thomson, Redan, and Egmont among kids’ publishers to back Wastebuster’s Recycle to Read scheme

A group of the UK’s biggest names in children’s magazines, including DC Thomson and Redan Publishing has signed up to become founding members of the education, research, and recycling programme, Recycle to Read, a campaign aimed at creating a more circular economy for children’s toys.

This week will see the programme begin sign up for schools for pilot collections in the autumn term, and will be announcing additional partnerships from the book publishing, retail, and toy sectors over the coming weeks.

Recycle to Read is a new toy and tech recycling initiative launched by Wastebuster in association with EPPIC and Products of Change with the aim of providing a solution for recycling all plastic toys with ‘take back’ collections housed across retailers, schools and household recycling centres in the UK.

This week sees the programme welcome a host of founding members from across the children’s magazine publishing space, including DC Thomson, Story House Egmont, Immediate Media, Kennedy Publishing, Redan Publishing, and Signature Publishing.

Katy Newham, founder of Wastebuster, said: “This is a really exciting time for the programme, thanks to the children’s publishers we are able to get phase one off the ground and we have more and more members coming on board as we progress with our talks.

“The entire industry is beginning to understand the value of using toys as a force for good, when educating children and their families in how to live a more sustainable life. Schools who take part in the Recycle to Read programme will benefit from curriculum linked environmental education, based in real life learning and rewarded with books.

“Our collaborative approach and not for profit ethos, means that we can offer an environmental solution for all UK companies who produce toys, not just the ones with the deepest pockets and our investment in education and research, as well as infrastructure and clear packaging iconography, means that our solution has the potential to be far reaching and long-lasting.”

Helena Mansell-Stopher from Products of Change, said: “With only 18 per cent of plastics being recycled globally, and no recycling infrastructure currently in place in the UK to recycle toys, the recycle to read collective impact initiative will provide a solution to this.

“As a cross industry sector initiative, it will be business that will fund the set-up of the toy recycling infrastructure, with all profits going back in to the initiative as Wastebuster are a not-for-profit environmental educator. Products of Change is extremely proud to be working with the Wastebuster team to bring this solution to the industry.”

For more information on the programme please visit www.recycletoread.org or contact Emily Bell on 07715902681 email emily@wastebuster.co.uk.

One Animation and Redan partner to bring Oddbods into Fun to Learn magazine

The content creation, distribution, and licensing studio, One Animation has secured a deal with the pre-school magazine publishing house, Redan Publishing to bring Oddbods into its Fun to Learn magazine titles this month.

Under the partnership, Oddbods will feature in the monthly magazine Fun to Learn Favourites from July 16th, followed by the three-weekly Fun to Learn Friends from August 6th. The magazine will feature Oddbods games, puzzles, and word searches, as well as host competitions for readers to win Oddbods plush and dress up merchandise.

The deal covers the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

Rob Spindley, SVP business development at One Animation, said: “An important part of our strategy for Oddbods is transporting the characters from the digital realm and into the physical world. This new partnership with Redan Publishing will offer fans an exciting way to interact and play with their favourite Oddbods characters beyond the screen, and we look forward to seeing the magazines hit shelves this month.”

Julie Jones, managing director at Redan Publishing, added: “When deciding on which new characters to add to our successful pre-school compilation magazines, we take into account how on trend the brand is, whether it will work from an educational standpoint and most importantly will it be popular with our readers.

“What attracted us to Oddbods is the wonderful mix of unique characters. Every child will be able to relate to one of the characters and this encourages children to celebrate difference and individuality especially when it’s all presented in such a fun and humorous way.”

Oddbods has becomed a globally recognised comedy brand featuring seven highly unique friends. Together, despite their differences, they survive the perils of everyday life, unintentionally turning ordinary situations into unexpected, extraordinary, and always humorous events.