A tonne of this is collected daily on Oxford Street alone. This means that over the course of a year, the bins are expected to collect around 1,500 tonnes of recyclable material – equivalent to some 99 million empty Coke cans.
London is by far the largest of the 65 Recycle Zones Coca-Cola currently has in operation throughout the UK, contributing to a dramatic increase in total recycled material collected throughout the year.
Lauren Branston, communications director of Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: “We're committed to making a positive impact on the environment and encouraging consumers to see our empty bottles and cans as a valuable resource that if recycled can be used again and again. One of the most effective steps we can take to significantly cut the carbon footprint of our drinks and help reduce littering, is to encourage people to recycle the empty packaging.
“As these statistics show, if the facilities are available people will recycle and we can save tonnes of valuable material from going to landfill. We're encouraged by the uptake so far, but we know there's a long way to go and this summer we'll be finding even more opportunities to help consumers recycle at Coca-Cola Recycle Zones at outdoor festivals and events across the UK and via our partnership with RecycleBank.”
Green Olympic Games
Coca-Cola, in partnership with Westminster city council, installed the bins in March this year as part of its commitment to help London stage a ‘green' Olympic Games in 2012 and leave a lasting environmental legacy for the city. The partnership was inspired by research conducted by Coca-Cola revealing that 56 per cent of Londoners want to recycle when away from their homes but 97 per cent think that is made more difficult by a lack of facilities.
Cllr Ed Argar, cabinet member for city management in Westminster, said that the recycling operation reflected the “firm commitment and partnership” which Coca-Cola and Westminster council were putting in to making the West End a 'green' city in time for the Olympic Games.
He commented: “I am pleased with how we responded to the needs and concerns of our residents and provided the facilties in order to make this a success. I believe that this scheme is testimony to what can be achieved through the public and private sectors initiating projects together. I hope this is a partnership we can continue to build upon until 2012 and beyond.”
The 66th UK Recycle Zone is due to launch today in Peterborough city centre. Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Enterprises have committed to introducing 80 Recycle Zones across GB by the end of 2011 and are working in partnership with WRAP to do so. Zones have already been set up in areas including Southampton city centre, Thorpe Park and Manchester airport.
Summer events
A series of Coca-Cola Recycle Zones at high profile summer events and outdoor festivals has kicked off including the Isle of Wight Festival and V Festival and where consumers will be invited to ‘swap for swag' – exchanging empty PET bottles for limited edition items including rain ponchos, torches and T-Shirts all of which contain recycled plastic made from empty bottles.
Seventy six metric tonnes of recyclable material have been collected from 53 Recycle Zones to date.
In May this year, Coca-Cola announced a partnership with RecycleBank, a recycling rewards programme currently in operation in over 60,000 UK homes, that motivates people to recycle by measuring the amount of material each home recycles and then converting that activity into RecycleBank Points that can be used at hundreds of local and national rewards partners (see letsrecycle.com story) .
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