UK households throw away 30 million tonnes of waste each year - averaging over 1 tonne per household. Yet, 80% of the contents of a household's bins could be reused, recycled or composted. To raise awareness around the growing issue of UK household waste, OLIO, the free sharing app, has created an emotive, hard-hitting ad to raise awareness and draw attention to how using OLIO can help tackle the problem. 

The campaign features an emotive, dystopian feeling film focused on a choir of young British school kids standing in the middle of a vast rubbish dump, singing Louis Armstrong’s evocative ‘What a Wonderful World’. 

“This isn’t a dystopian vision of the future, but a very grim and current reality - and it’s today’s children who’ll end up paying the price for our behaviour,” said Fiona White, creative director, Hell Yeah!, “At the same time there is genuine optimism, it’s not too late to turn the tide. Creatively we kept things simple - innocent children singing one of the world’s most beloved songs on an actual landfill delivered our message with an emotional punch.”

Direct and powerful camera work focuses initially on the children and goes on to show discarded toys, bags, TVs and other household waste on a landfill site in Wales. The camera continues to pan out, revealing the enormity of just one single landfill. 

"Let's not waste our wonderful world" is the simple yet powerful message that closes the ad, followed by OLIO's tagline inspiring audiences to "Share more. Waste less."

Some of the biggest culprits of household waste are food waste and packaging. OLIO’s sharing app directly tackles this waste by ensuring that unwanted food and goods find a new home, reducing both landfills and the need for more packaging.

Tessa Clarke, co-founder and CEO at OLIO explained, “We wanted to reach everyone, but particularly parents, with the message that there is something simple they can do to make a difference and protect their children’s future. We urgently need to start a discussion about waste in our homes, and show people that while things are bad, there is hope - they can take real action right now by sharing more and wasting less.”

Out of home ads, will run in November and January across London and use photography from the shoot, taken by acclaimed artist and photographer Rachel Brown, with real-life quotes from the children featured.

The TV ad will run across Sky, Channel 4 and ITV channels, and will also benefit from £250,000 additional media spend as one of the inaugural winners of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund. Media is being handled by Squadron Venture Media.