More than 30,000 bottles were recycled at this year’s Special Olympics Great Britain, in an initiative supported by Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE) and recycling charity Recoup.
The ninth national Special Olympics GB National Summer Games saw 1,700 athletes with intellectual disabilities compete over three days (28 August to 1 September), in venues across Bath and Bristol.
By implementing ‘several’ recycling initiatives at the games, CCE hoped to follow on from its recycling efforts at the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic Games. Such initiatives included placing a ‘large number’ of branded CCE recycling crates around the venues, as well as ‘decontaminating facilities’. Further, a team of CCE and Recoup volunteers assisted with recycling and litter picking.
Process ‘mirrored’ London 2012
Last summer, Coca-Cola collected over 10.5 million bottles at the Olympics and Paralympics, which were subsequently taken to its £15 million Continuum Recycling processing facility, a joint venture with ECO plastics.
Likewise, the plastic bottles disposed of at the Special Olympics were taken to Continuum Recycling to be reprocessed, and returned to shelves as newly manufactured bottles within six weeks.
According to CCE, the recycling initiative provided a ‘valuable’ opportunity to spread the recycling message across Great Britain, ‘inspiring people to recycle on the go and to embed that behaviour in their home’.
Managing Director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, Simon Baldry, commented: “We are a proud supporter of the Special Olympics movement and were very pleased to be actively involved at this year’s National Summer Games with our recycling facilities and many on-site volunteers.
“We partnered with Recoup as part of our ‘Deliver for Today; Inspire for Tomorrow’ sustainability agenda. CCE has committed to reducing the carbon footprint of the drink in the consumer’s hand by a third by 2020, and initiatives such as this are an important part of the process as well as helping to encourage positive behaviour change. We want to spread the recycling message to inspire consumers to reassess their attitudes to waste, and the National Summer Games provided another valuable opportunity to do so. ”
Chief Executive of Recoup, Stuart Foster, added:“We were delighted to work with CCE again on such an important national sporting event, after the recycling success of London 2012. The collections at the latest Special Olympics National Summer Games made it one of the greenest on record, by ensuring that recycling of PET bottles and cans was as easy and accessible as possible for spectators and athletes enjoying the Games.”
Read more about the Special Olympics GB National Summer Games.
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How will the government and DMOs address the challenges of including glass in DRS while ensuring a level playing field across the UK?
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