A recent recycling initiative launched during the ‘Race to Recycle’, a competition involving 60 Perth school children, has made an effort to support the recovery and recycling of plastic and glass bottles and aluminium cans.
The initiative was launched at the West Australian Basketball Centre involving the 60 students from Notre Dame Primary School who were actively learning about the importance of recycling.
The launch marks the partnership between VenuesWest and the Australian Food and Grocery Council’s Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF).
The project has implemented the instillation of away from home recycling bins at sporting facilities in Mt Claremont a suburb of Perth WA.
“This project fits with WA’s Waste Strategy, which aims to improve the state’s recycling rates. I commend the beverage industry and VenuesWest for their partnership on this project, and encourage other venues across WA to get involved and partner with the PSF to provide the infrastructure needed to increase our recycling rates,” said Paul Miles, state member of parliament for Wanneroo.
Mr Miles, representing Western Australian Minister for Environment and Water, Bill Marmion, officially launched the new recycling system.
Jenny Pickles, General Manager of the PSF, said, “It’s great to have VenuesWest on board with new recycling systems for its visitors. It is through partnerships like this that we can make it just as easy for Western Australian’s to recycle away from home as it is when they’re at home, and to encourage people to Do the Right Thing, Use the Right Bin”.
The project has been estimated to divert more than 70 tonnes of recyclable bottles and cans from landfill annually. This is enough to fill more than 9,700 household wheelie bins.
VenuesWest’s CEO, David Etherton, said he was excited to partner with the PSF to work towards improved recycling by visitors to the Mt Claremont area.
“Through this initiative we hope to recover 70 tonnes of plastic bottles, glass bottles and aluminium cans for recycling each year. The PSF’s funding has ensured that recycling becomes as big a focus for VenuesWest as renewable energy and other sustainability initiatives have been in the past,” said Mr Etherton.
From 2010 – 2011, VenuesWest has seen 2945 events and dealt with 130,507 total hours of bookings in the attempt to achieve their objective to provide away from home recycling to visitors in the Mt Claremont sporting zone.
