Bunzl Catering Supplies joins new recycling initiative
The initiative aims to demonstrate the public's willingness to recycle.
Lord’s Cricket Ground, the historic Home of Cricket, has teamed up with Bunzl Catering Supplies, Simply Waste Solutions (SWS) and Closed Loop Environmental Services (CLES) in phase one of a partnership to trial a new recycling initiative.
The trial, set up specifically to observe the effect of the newly designed recycling bins found that up to 15% of single-use plastic cups were self-segregated for recycling by spectators into recycling bins suitable for the venue. Phase one of the trial demonstrated the general public’s willingness to participate in recycling.
The trial resulted in minimal contamination in the bins providing a clean, single material waste stream that could be integrated into the ongoing Lord’s waste management strategy.
Set up specifically to observe the effect of the recycling bins, the trial proved that spectators would correctly recycle their plastic cups if given the opportunity to so do in an easily accessible and understandable way.
Product design company, A-Short-Walk, created bin inserts to fit the venue’s static 240L bins, with the ability to allow spectator self-segregation of approximately 1,000 plastic cups each, whilst smaller, wall mounted hoop bins at the venue held up to 100 stacked plastic cups.
The first trial launched at the Specsavers County Championship match between Middlesex and Nottinghamshire early this season; where the partnership not only observed engagement with the bins first-hand, but proactively asked for spectator feedback.
Russell Seymour, Sustainability Manager for Marylebone Cricket Club, said: “Part of MCC’s sustainability policy is to generate minimal waste, all of which is re-used, recycled or recovered. We identified plastic waste as a significant and visible proportion of our waste on major match days. Phase one of the trial was such a success because it was straightforward for the customer – a good number of people actually engaged and noticed the new bins, and were willing to use them. Thanks to our partnership with Bunzl Catering Supplies, Simply Waste Solutions and Closed Loop Environmental Services, we were able to effectively close the loop between supplier, user, waste contractor and recycler.”
Joanna Gilroy, Head of Sustainability, Bunzl Catering Supplies commented: “Being able to conduct effective recycling measures in large venues is increasingly important. Our key aim for phase one of the trial was to observe consumer behaviour, especially around the issue of contamination in bins. What we saw was a real willingness on the side of the consumer to actively and effectively recycle providing a system is in place that’s understandable, accessible and simple to use.”
The recycling experiment follows the business’s work with Lord’s in 2015 to re-imagine and re-design the way cardboard waste is dealt with, by creating a cost-effective solution to segregate out cardboard waste as a clean stream with closed loop potential. The initial six-week trial generated significant results for the venue - an 18% net saving on waste collection costs, as well as complete visibility over how much material was collected from site and where the material was sent for recycling.
