John and Ann Till from Petersfield couldn't afford to fly back from their dream cruise on the Queen Mary 2, so when they saw a promotion from Tesco offering Air Miles in return for recyclable items to be collected at their local store, they set about a massive clean- up of their district.

For every four items put into the Tesco recycling collection point, they collected a Reward Point, which they were then able to convert to Air Miles.

In all they collected more than 36,000 points, which was enough to fly them home from Atlanta on business class.

The Tills hatched the plan one day when they were buying petrol and saw the recycling point at the Petersfield store.

Initially, they thought they might get enough to help subsidise the flight, but when they looked around they noticed hundreds of discarded plastic bottles and cans that had been littered from people's vehicles and caught in hedgerows.

They were a very dedicated pair, feeding the collection point with their recyclables over a three-month period almost every night.

They soon found the best places to collect their recyclable material, helping them to achieve their goal sooner.

While on the face of it this makes for an amusing story, this perhaps proves the point that incentives can work when trying to increase recycling rates.

The secret is getting the incentive right.

Previous attempts at incentivising recycling locally have been only moderately successful, but this may be due to the level of incentive available.

If Tesco were to roll this scheme out nationwide (Petersfield was only one of a small number of stores taking part in a trial), would they be inundated with recyclable waste from people posing as Wombles keen to make a living out of litter?


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