About Us

Wastebuster is a not-for-profit environmental education company on a mission to encourage children to care for the environment. Using entertainment for social change, practical action challenges and recycling reward campaigns, Wastebuster aim to inform, inspire and empower children with the tools and mindset to create their own, more sustainable futures.

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Wastebuster’s award-winning platform, The Pod, hosts popular annual campaigns including, Waste Week, What’s Under Your Feet and Switch Off Fortnight that reach over 17,800 UK schools, including over 40% of UK primary schools and 1 in 3 secondary schools. Wastebuster/ Pod resources reach more than 62,000 teachers and engage over 5 million young people and their families each year through its global network totaling 24,000 schools, in 94 countries.

Wastebuster is an accredited NGO partner of the United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) and develops its programmes in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Wastebuster works together with industry, local government, NGOs, academics and schools to develop Recycle to Read to unlock considerable social, economic, and environmental benefits for the societies in which it operates.

“Recycle to Read supports families in learning about the environmental benefits of toy rehoming and recycling, while rewarding them with books for taking part. What better way can we inspire and empower children to make pro-environmental choices, than by storytelling with their favourite characters and giving them an opportunity to send their unwanted toys on a new adventure that is good for the planet?”

Katy Newnham, Founder, Wastebuster

Products of Change (POC) is a purpose-driven organisation, structured around its not-for-profit membership, its educational resources, media arm, and its advisory team, to support its members and the brand licensing industry on its sustainability journey.

As well as collaborating on and supporting a number of events throughout the year, POC curates the Products of Change Conference annually, the first of its kind in the brand and licensing industry, formed to advance the industries knowledge on future innovations within the sustainability space and connect companies and individuals together to make sustainable change.

Find out more at productsofchange.com

“The Recycle to Read platform is the result of the tireless work of an industry coming together with cross-sector stakeholders around the need to find more sustainable solution for unwanted or broken toys. After so many years in the making, it’s amazing to see the campaign come to life through this Hasbro and Tesco partnership. This is a hugely exciting moment that I believe represents a turning point for circularity in toys, and a wonderful example of what can be achieved when industry demonstrates sector leadership and comes together, in the pursuit of sustainability”

Helena Mansell-Stopher, Founder, Products of Change