I-Plas Blog
Loop the Loop
At Thorpe Park in Surrey, a place for hardy roller coaster riders, Coca Cola have set up one of their first Coke Recycling Zones to encourage visitors to recycle plastic bottles. The Carbon Trust has found that packaging accounts for the greatest proportion of a drinks company's carbon footprint and yet it is estimated that only 25% of PET bottles are recycled.
We love innovative recycling schemes. We also love the encouragement of global brands in the message of recycling and that waste is useful.
We particularly like "closed loop" recycling schemes. In essence this is where waste that is a by-product of one process or product is used in the making of another product and supplied back to the source of the waste in the first place. It is the holy grail of recycling and it just makes so much sense.
Here at i-plas we have a number of such schemes with commercial customers and also work with local schools to get the recycling message across. Children, the recyclers of tomorrow, can immediately see that you reap what you sow. They collect waste, cajoling recalcitrant parents and relatives along the way, and benefit from benches, seats, planters and bins all made from the waste they have collected. Schemes such as this are really important as it gives tangible benefits to recycling waste, not just the old argument of saving the planet which is sometimes difficult for children to grasp.
But protecting dwindling natural resources, using less energy, reducing landfill and producing useful products from waste is a message that everyone can understand and that's why the Coke initiative is to be applauded.
So the next time your stomach is being churned as you go round the loops at Thorpe Park, or perhaps you are enjoying a more leisurely stroll in your local park, make sure you recycle that bottle and get in the loop.
