News
Employees praised for making Every Can Count
25/05/2010
Every Can Counts has been working with the Welsh Assembly Government and Envirowise, the Government-funded programme dedicated to putting the sustainable use of resources at the heart of UK business practice, to implement drinks can recycling across public sector organisations in Wales. Environment Minister, Jane Davidson, showed her support for the drinks can recycling programme by visiting the Identity and Passport Service to showcase what is being seen as a clear benchmark for workplace recycling in Wales.
The out of home recycling programme for drinks cans is being promoted by Envirowise as part of its Public Sector Waste Minimisation Campaign (PSWMC), funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. The campaign aims to support all public sector organisations in Wales in their work to reduce waste generated as a result of their day-to-day operations in delivering services to the public. To date, Every Can Counts has successfully recruited 13 organisations1 to work with, some of which have used the programme to set up new recycling schemes, others to complement existing initiatives.
Launched in January this year, the IPS has implemented Every Can Counts in order to complement its existing recycling programme and reinvigorate workplace recycling amongst its 365 staff. Funding from PSWMC has enabled the production of communications materials in Welsh, ensuring the 25 IPS Green Team volunteers can spread the green word throughout the organisation to ensure everyone is doing their bit for the environment.
Environment Minister, Jane Davidson, said: “I am very impressed by the recycling efforts of the Identity and Passport Service and would like to congratulate the staff on their achievements so far.”
“Programmes like the PSWMC and Every Can Counts demonstrate how much can be achieved by recycling within the workplace and I hope their success will encourage other organisations to take their recycling efforts to the next level.”
“Later this Spring I will be launching our Waste Management strategy ‘Towards Zero Waste’ which will set out our ambitions of becoming a high recycling country by 2025 and a zero waste country by 2050. Dramatically improving recycling at work with be key to helping us achieve these ambitions. ”
Sarah Coughlan, Estates Team Officer, IPS said: “It has been an easy process to integrate Every Can Counts into our existing recycling infrastructure. We’re already seeing a marked increase in our drinks can recycling rates and it’s really encouraging to see so many of our staff members being so proactive. Last year we collected over 60kg of drinks cans for recycling. It’s still early days but our Green Team volunteers are already seeing an extra two kilos of drink cans being recycled each month. Over the coming year, that should mean us diverting an additional 1,600 cans from landfill.”
“It’s exciting to have this opportunity to work with the public sector in Wales,” added Rick Hindley, Every Can Counts. “The range of programmes we are now working with demonstrate the flexibility of Every Can Counts and how it can effectively increase the pro-environmental behaviour of employees. It’s extremely positive to witness how the Identity and Passport Service is implementing the programme and to see it making a difference straight away.”
