Tidy Our Town: Meet the councillor who helped get a Deposit Return Scheme machine in Northampton
Meet the councillor who helped to get a Deposit Return Scheme machine installed in Northampton for the first time, who is the latest to join the Tidy Our Town campaign.
The reverse vending machine was placed at the University of Northampton at the end of February, as a collaboration between the Northants Litter Wombles, installer Trovr and the University.
This is hoped to be a gamechanger for the town as it incentivises recycling bottles and cans, and puts Northampton ahead of the curve and national rollout in 2027.
It was West Suffolk District Councillor Janne Jarvis who instigated the first Deposit Return Scheme and recycling rewards scheme in the UK last March.
As a Finnish citizen, Janne was shocked that the UK did not already have something like this in place and set out to change that.
It has seen such success that the machines have been implemented in a number of locations, including Newmarket, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill and now Northampton.
Janne first reached out to the Northants Litter Wombles to get the idea off the ground after reading a Tidy Our Town story by the Chronicle & Echo, in which volunteer Mark Watson expressed his support for the national rollout of a Deposit Return Scheme.
Janne is a Finnish citizen and he spent a lot of his life there, during which time he noticed the “remarkable results” of the Deposit Return Scheme which has been in place since the 1950s.
He explained that schemes of this nature have now been rolled out across 45 countries, and that it often results in the areas being “pristine and spotless”.
Janne says that because residents become so accustomed to the scheme in place, it makes it easier to implement new ones to continue building on what already exists – as everyone is used to being clean and tidy.
“It’s extraordinary that the UK didn’t have a scheme like this already,” said Janne, who began by educating himself on reverse vending machines after he and his friends wondered what they could do to help their hometown environmentally.
He spent a year calling councillors and those in the environmental industry to find out more, but soon came to the realisation that he needed to run in his local election if he were to make this happen.
Janne was successful and is currently the Labour representative for the Newmarket North ward, and he immediately began by reapproaching the contacts he had built to make his plan a reality.
Though the concept of reverse vending machines was not reinventing the wheel, Janne said it was met with “skepticism”.
He praised Trovr’s great technology, app and rewards, which have given value to recycling and have been an essential part of the small-scale rollout in some areas.
Talking about how this has now been adopted by Northampton and the Litter Wombles, Janne said: “It’s a great honour for me, I’m thrilled. I was just a private citizen who felt helpless with climate change hanging over us, but we can do something about it.”
Janne believes a Deposit Return Scheme is “fundamental” as residents can see the positive impact with their own eyes, which makes them more invested in getting involved.
Janne says getting ahead of the national rollout of a Deposit Return Scheme is a “good way of keeping the pressure on” the government – as well as helping to educate councils and local authorities about how it works and the benefits ahead of October 2027.
If you would like to get involved in the Tidy Our Town campaign, established in collaboration with the Northants Litter Wombles, email [email protected].