Park Meadows initiates successful recycling campaign

"Your carbon footprint is defined as the amount of carbon dioxide that all the different aspects of your lifestyle contribute towards the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming," explains Marjike Arran, marketing manager the centre. "The good news though, is that it is possible to make your carbon footprint smaller through implementing simple little changes such as reusing shopping bags, taking shorter showers, using energy-saving light bulbs, and of course recycling.

"Rather than approaching the topic subtly, we decided to take the bull by the horns with our programme. We currently have ten branded bins - two for each category of glass, paper, cans, plastic and plastic bottles and to complement this we have implemented an effective communications campaign to generate awareness of the importance of recycling."

Because recycling is still a relatively new concept to South Africans, the Park Meadows marketing team opted to implement an advertising campaign that was both informative and educational, often relying on shock-emotive messages to drive home this message.

"The critical message here is to reduce, re-use and recycle," explains Arran. "Since we started this project in February 2010, we have had to consistently increase our capacity for recycling, so much so that we will soon have to increase the bin sizes from 240L each to 1000L each."

For the four months from February to end-May 2010, Arran reported growth in the recycling initiative with a breakdown as follows:

• 6,150 kg of glass
  
• 1,139 kg of cardboard
  
• 935 kg of plastic
  
• 1,573 kg of plastic bottles
  
• 2,230 kg of white paper
  
• 4,223 kg of coloured paper
  
• 984 kg of cans

"Not only are individuals invited to support this recycling initiative, but local schools, non-profit organisations and offices in the area are also encouraged to partake," concludes Arran.