Recycling on the high street

Coca-Cola Great Britain has invested in three High Street Recycle Zones across Great Britain – in Southampton, Westminster and Peterborough.

 These Recycle Zones differ in terms of scale, providing multiple locations across the city, as well as providing additional infrastructure and equipment, such as branded collection vehicles.

 Key learnings will be captured and shared so that other local authorities can consider the right model for their own high street recycling initiatives.

Case Study - Southampton

Coca-Cola chose Southampton City Council as the first local authority to host a High Street Recycle Zone.

 Southampton city centre has 15 double stainless steel bins, liveried with the phrase 'Keep it Going. Recycle' with a further 35 dual recycling and litter bins located in parks and other central locations in the city.

 All the new recycling bins are stylish in design and are branded with Southampton City Council and Coca-Cola logos alongside information designed to inspire people to recycle more often.

 Southampton City Council's waste management team have also been provided with a branded collection vehicle to help with the specific collection and maintenance of the bins.

The launch of the Recycle Zone was supported by a bespoke advertising campaign across the city, with outdoor, print and digital media all being used to encourage Southampton's residents and visitors to make use of the facilities.

As a result Southampton City Council and Coca-Cola are working to make it as easy as possible for people to recycle more often within the city. By boosting consumer recycling levels, Coca-Cola will at the same time be increasing the supply of local recyclate and be able to increase the amount of recycled content in its bottles and cans.

Jon Woods, Country Manager for Coca-Cola in Great Britain said " Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do - without sustainable, healthy communities we won't have a sustainable business. We're committed to reducing our impact on the environment: as well as putting our own house in order we must help our consumers to do more - Recycle Zones are a great way of doing that. Cans and bottles are made of precious materials which can be used again and again through recycling.  We know that increasing recycling levels is one of the most effective steps we can take to cut our carbon footprint and bring us closer to our goal of operating sustainably."

Councillor Matthew Dean, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, said: "This is a fantastic value for money initiative, which will hopefully get more people recycling in the city.  We know that in Southampton we need to do all we can to get people to recycle and, particularly, to make it easy for people to recycle and by working with Coca-Cola we can go a long way to achieving this."

Robbie Robinson, Chair of Pensioners Forum said: "This is a great idea, because you can recycle your plastic bottles and drink cans instead of them ending up in the general litter bin.  It will help keep the parks and city clean, green and tidy."

Case Study  – Westminster

Coca-Cola's 260 Recycle Zone recycling bins in operation throughout London's busy West End are collecting more than four tonnes of recyclable material every single day, according to our research.

A tonne of this is collected daily on Oxford Street alone. This means that over the course of a year, the bins are expected to collect around 1,500 tonnes of recyclable material - equivalent to some 99 million empty Coke cans.

What's more, 60% of all the waste collected in the 260 dual access bins - one side for ordinary rubbish and one side for recyclable materials such as paper, plastic bottles and aluminium cans - is recycled rather than going to landfill [1].

Jon Woods, Country Manager of Coca-Cola in Great Britain said: "We're committed to making a positive impact on the environment and encouraging consumers to see our empty bottles and cans as a valuable resource that can be used again and again through recycling. One of the most effective steps we can take to significantly cut the carbon footprint of our drinks and help reduce littering is to encourage people to recycle the empty packaging. As these statistics show, if the facilities are available, people will recycle and we can save tonnes of valuable material from going to landfill. We're encouraged by the uptake so far, but we know there's a long way to go.”

Cllr Ed Argar, cabinet member for city management, said:"This recycling operation reflects the firm commitment and partnership which Coca-Cola and Westminster Council are putting in to making the West End a 'green' city in time for the Olympic Games. I am pleased with how we responded to the needs and concerns of our residents and provided the facilities in order to make this a success. I believe that this scheme is testimony to what can be achieved through the public and private sectors initiating projects together. I hope this is a partnership we can continue to build upon until 2012 and beyond."

Coca-Cola, in partnership with Westminster City Council, installed the bins in March this year as part of its commitment to help London stage a 'green' Olympic Games in 2012 and leave a lasting environmental legacy for the city. The partnership was inspired by research conducted by Coca-Cola revealing that more than half of Londoners (56 per cent) want to recycle when away from their homes but 97 per cent think that is made more difficult by a lack of facilities.

Case Study  – Peterborough

The City Centre Recycle Zone in Peterborough was launched in June 2010.The new recycle-on-the-go bins will be branded with the Coca-Cola and Peterborough City Council logos plus information designed to inspire people to recycle more often.  Coca-Cola has also provided Peterborough City Council’s city services team with branded collection vehicles to help with the collection and maintenance of the bins.

Councillor Samantha Dalton, the city council's cabinet member for environment capital, said: "This fantastic initiative matches our commitment to achieve sustainable growth.  It contributes to our growing reputation as the UK’s environment capital because, by working with Coca-Cola, we can make it easy for people to recycle valuable materials as they move around the city.”

Councillor Samantha Dalton, the city council's cabinet member for environment capital, said: "This fantastic initiative matches our commitment to achieve sustainable growth.  It contributes to our growing reputation as the UK’s environment capital because, by working with Coca-Cola, we can make it easy for people to recycle valuable materials as they move around the city.”