26/07/2009

Festival Place gets in the ‘Zone’

Festival Place, Basingstoke, is Hampshire’s regional shopping ‘destination’ and one of the largest in the country. In 2005 a Materials Recovery Facility was installed at the Shopping Centre which today results in almost half of the 2000 tonnes of retail and consumer waste, produced annually, being recycled.

Now an ‘On the Go Recycle Zone’ specifically for consumer waste has been introduced. Envirobanks from LEAFIELD Environmental (Formally known as Linpac Environmental)have been chosen for the project and funding has come in part from, specialist plastics recycler, Recoup, and also the Coca Cola Company.

The ‘Recycle zone’ comprises six, 240 litre, Envirobanks produced in a smart Burgundy colour with WRAP compliant apertures for receiving plastic carrier bags, paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, aluminium cans and mobile phones. Clearly the Envirobank design works as cross-contamination levels are reported at only 2% which is important as the revenue achieved is reflected by the purity and consistency of the waste stream.

Creating a dedicated Recycling Zone has given a focus for the public that is clean, attractive and well signed in keeping with the rest of Festival Place and the response has been excellent. The units are well used and visitors are getting into a routine of recycling with the carrier bag unit get the most use, and to date 600 mobile phones have been collected with the proceeds going to charity.

A full Case Study detailing the MRF project and Coca Cola’s ‘On the go Recycling Zone’ has been produced as is available on www.leafieldrecycle.co.uk/Downloads