West Lothian students lead the way with strong recycling credentials
Monday, November 08, 2010
- 82% of students claim to recycle at home weekly or more regularly
- Nine out of ten students believe it is important for recycling facilities to be more available in public spaces
- 74% of students would recycle more often if recycling areas were more readily available in their area
08 November 2010: West Lothian College has today announced a successful first term for its new Recycle Zone scheme, supported by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), which is encouraging students to recycle bottles and cans when out and about on campus. In its first term at West Lothian the Recycle Zone has diverted an impressive 450 kg of material from landfill.
The success of this facility comes as a recycling survey, conducted by CCE, has revealed that students are especially in need of on-the-go recycling to match their on-the-go lifestyles. Students rank slightly below the national average when it comes to recycling at home, with 82% saying they recycle weekly or more regularly, in comparison to the national average of 87%. However a whopping nine out of ten students believe it's important for recycling facilities to be available for people when they are not at home.
In fact, 74% of students would recycle more if recycling areas were more readily available in their area. Following the success of West Lothian's Recycle Zone, it is hoped that more students, colleges and universities will review and improve their own on-the-go recycling facilities.
Recycle Zone is a public facility developed and funded by CCE for recycling soft drinks packaging and aims to encourage people to recycle their cans and plastic bottles when they are away from home. The Recycle Zone project is a partnership between CCE, WRAP/Zero Waste Scotland and RECOUP that combines each organisation's expertise and forms part of CCE's wider Keep It Going sustainable packaging programme. There are currently 89 zones across Great Britain, with plans to open a total of 120 zones by March 2011.
Erika Coghlan, Vice President public affairs and communications, CCE said: "Over recent years recycling in the home and at work has become easier and easier. However, recycling options on the streets and in public areas are still few and far between.
"We are committed to reducing the impact of our packaging, and recycling as much of that packaging as possible. We know that many of our products are consumed whilst 'on-the-go', and so we are committed to providing convenient recycling solutions that help our consumers become involved in the recycling process."
Iain Gulland, Director of Zero Waste Scotland, said: "If we are going to become a zero waste society it needs to be easy for people to recycle when they are out and about - not just at home.
"Zero waste is also about helping people to understand that much of what we think of as rubbish is actually a valuable resource. Bottles, cans and other packaging materials have value and by dropping them as litter or putting them in general waste bins, this is money lost to the Scottish economy."
Organisations can request more information about setting up Recycle Zones by visiting http://www.recycle-zone.co.uk/ or emailing rz@recoup.org.
ENDS
Notes to editors
* Data collated via Omnibus survey of 3,000 respondents in June 2010
For further information about Recycle Zones please contact Anouchka Burton, Coralie Esling or Elisabeth Middlemas at 3 Monkeys Communications on cocacolaenterprises@3-monkeys.co.uk / 020 7009 3100.
About Coca-Cola Enterprises:
Coca-Cola Enterprises, Inc. is the world's third-largest independent Coca-Cola bottler. CCE is the sole licensed bottler for products of The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) in Belgium, continental France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
In Great Britain (GB) Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) employs around 4,500 people across England, Scotland and Wales at manufacturing sites, regional offices and depots.
CCE is committed to minimising the environmental impact of its products and operations, with a particular focus on sustainable packaging and recycling, water stewardship, and energy and climate protection.
Six of CCE's manufacturing sites meet ISO14001 certification, the highest international standard for environmental management. CCE has reduced its energy usage ratio across manufacturing operations in GB by 21% since 2001 and more than 99% of waste at sites is now recovered or recycled.
All of CCE's glass bottles are 100% recyclable and contain an average of 30% recycled materials; all plastic bottles are made from PET (polyethylene teraphthalate) and are 100% recyclable, and all CCE cans are made from 100% recyclable aluminium and contain around 50% recycled aluminium.
CCE calculates and publishes the CO2 emissions resulting from the manufacture and distribution of all its brands, and in 2007 CCE partnered with the Carbon Trust to measure all greenhouse gas emissions embodied within selected products in the portfolio. For further information please visit www.cokecce.co.uk.
About WRAP
WRAP helps individuals, businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change.
Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Working in seven key areas (construction, retail, manufacturing, organics, business growth, behavioural change, and local authority support), WRAP's work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
About Recoup
Recoup are a plastics recycling consultancy based in Peterborough. For over 20 years, Recoup have been a key player in the recycling of plastics, through setting up schemes to collect plastics to producing guidance documentation around the recyclabililty of plastic packaging.
About Zero Waste Scotland
Zero Waste Scotland works with businesses, communities,
individuals and local authorities to help them reduce waste,
recycle more and use resources sustainably. The programme is funded
by the Scottish Government to support delivery of its Zero Waste
Plan.
Zero Waste Scotland will act as a one-stop shop, bringing together
seven former programmes. 2010/11 is a transition year with
existing activity continuing under a new single brand.
Programmes and services include:
- Services to business
- Local and national campaigns
- Voluntary waste reduction agreements, like Courtauld and Halving Waste to Landfill
- Expert support to local authorities, resource management businesses and the third sector
- Capital investment
- Research, training and identifying best practice
