The importance of recycling cannot be squashed 15/02/2010 00:00:10
By Fay Dashper, Recycling Manager, Tetra Pak UK
I think the environment should be included as part of our national security. Defence of our resources is just as important as defence abroad. Otherwise, what is there to defend?
So our team salaries may not quite match those of Hollywood actor and environmentalist Robert Redford, but we certainly share his vision. 2009 was a challenging and busy year for environmentalists, from concerns at the start of the year around the stability of the waste re-processing market, through to the 10:10 Guardian campaign and the Copenhagen summit.
Here in Wrexham, we’ve been similarly busy playing our part: growing the hugely-expanded carton recycling infrastructure around the UK and – just as importantly – engaging directly with parents and kids to ensure even more juice and milk cartons are heading into the recycling streams. As 2010 begins, 349 Local Authorities are now collecting cartons for recycling; that’s 86% of the UK. Even better, one in five Councils have now introduced cartons into their kerbside collections, making it even easier for local residents to recycle, whilst some Local Authorities have introduced cartons into their ‘on the go’ street recycling collections. When combined with our carton collection service for schools and businesses this creates even more efficient ways to recycle.
It’s the efficiency message we’ve been pushing to the keen recyclers all year: squash your cartons before you recycle them and fit at least three times more into your recycling bin!
But, of course, our recycling commitments for 2010 reach further than ‘squash’. We’ll continue to work with our industry body, ACE UK, to encourage the remaining Local Authorities to switch to kerbside collections and help consumers to realise how easy it can be to recycle their used cartons.
How do you squash yours?
That’s the question we asked the nation in 2009 via our YouTube competition. Thanks to national, regional and online coverage, local events and photo-shoots with Local Authorities, we received some fantastic video entries of the most imaginative ways people squash their cartons before recycling. From a dancing Scotsman, to a Power Ranger using his secret powers, to cartwheels and arm wrestles on cartons, every squash counted! The winner, seven year old Niamh Arthur, was announced in December following a public vote. Her ‘On your bike’ squash video proved to be the national favourite.
