Unilever and Greenredeem, the company that rewards people for everyday green actions, have announced an ongoing partnership aimed to increase recycling rates.

The ongoing partnership between Greenredeem and Unilever aims to support partner charities as well as motivating members through unique rewards from the Unilever stable of household brands - with the aim of driving recycling rates towards the EU target of a 50% recycling rate by 2020.

Greenredeem members will see the partnership come to life under Unilever's Project Sunlight banner.

Through Greenredeem's 135,000 strong member base, Unilever aims to raise a further £20,000 for Comic Relief ahead of Red Nose Day on 13th March, 2015. Not only will this donation hugely benefit the charity and its projects, it will also mean that through the actions of Greenredeem members, 1,000 tonnes of recycling will be saved from being sent to landfills across the UK – the equivalent of fifty recycling trucks.

Unilever Marketing Manager, Anna Owen, explained: "We're so excited to work with Greendeem to drive recycling rates in the UK. It's shocking how far the UK lags behind other nations and we see incentivising positive action as a key mechanic to move rates forward, to meet and hopefully smash 2020 target levels. To drive behaviour change we know you need to make it easy, fun and rewarding to do the right thing – and that's just what the Greenredeem platform offers. We hope that through the partnership we can educate our consumers that they can recycle more Unilever product packaging than they may realise".

"The Red Nose Day points for donations launch campaign is a brilliant way for us to donate more to Comic Relief", she added, "and encourage recycling in the process".

"We're thrilled to be working with one of the world's leading consumer goods companies to help people be rewarded for taking green actions. This will not only benefit individuals, but will also help boost recycling rates and improve our environment for the next generation. We would encourage all Greenredeem members to think about donating their recycling reward points to all of our donations schemes as well as considering donating to Comic Relief - a national charity that works to do so much good both in our own country and abroad", explained Rob Crumbie, Communications Director at Greenredeem.

"We also see this groundbreaking partnership as a real motivation for more local authorities to take a rewarding approach to recycling, enabling them to access a powerful partnership between the private and public sector to drive behavioural change at a local level".