Published on: August 15, 2011

Published by: admin

Willow Place and Corby Town Centre celebrates a year of making Every Can Count

Willow Place and Corby Town Centre, is today celebrating a year of helping shoppers, visitors and retailers recycle their drinks cans ‘on the go’. The shopping  centre, which teamed up with out-of-home recycling programme, Every Can Counts last summer  has been a real success in promoting recycling; so much that just last month alone over 10,000 cans were collected.

Over the last three months a competition has been running to encourage all the stores and restaurants to collect more cans. Eatery, Cafe Royale Bistro, has today been crowned overall winner. The bistro will receive an iPod, which will be given to Kamil Gunes, the employee who put the most effort into the can recycling campaign.

Ruth Meeke, Programme Manager for Every Can Counts commented, “To date, Willow Place and Corby Town Centre has been the most successful shopping centre in terms of cans collected. As every drinks can recycled can be back on supermarket shelves or vending machines in just 6 weeks, it’s really important that recycling is convenient and accessible, especially when ‘on the go’. It’s fantastic to see such  tremendous support for Every Can Counts.  Well done to Cafe Royale, who have won the store prize, let’s hope other stores follow their lead.”

Willow Place and Corby Town Centre, which receives around 7 million visitors each year, was the first UK shopping centre to introduce Every Can Counts. The programme forms  part of a focused green strategy aimed at diverting as much waste as possible from landfill.

All 174 stores and restaurants within the Land Securities-owned site, have Every Can Counts recycling boxes and promotional materials for both staff and shoppers. In addition to this, four branded can crushers are positioned in high footfall areas of the town.

Stephen Tysoe, Facilities Manager at Willow Place Shopping Centre and Corby Town Centre commented, “The Every Can Counts recycling campaign has been a great success, it has helped recycle more drinks cans and created a unique partnership with Signpost, a local community group who collect the cans from shops and restaurants, which are sorted and recycled on site.  Land Securities believe in environmental sustainability, we are delighted to be able to engage with our shoppers and allow them to recycle their cans. We would encourage other shopping centres to follow our example and introduce Every Can Counts.”

Four thousand Every Can Counts collection points have been established around the UK with an impressive uptake from over 470 organisations – ranging from large businesses, Local Authorities and universities, town centres and tourist locations – all of which are helping to increase the recycling rates for drinks cans used outside the home.

For more information, visit www.everycancounts.co.uk or www.landsecurities.com

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