Veolia goes green for National Recycle Week

Sheffield City Council and Veolia Environmental Services celebrated National Recycle Week last week by encouraging residents to go green in their gardens. ‘Simon the Scarecrow’ was out and about at events throughout Sheffield, showing residents how they could make the most of their garden waste through home composting. Simon demonstrated how garden waste, raw fruit and vegetables, as well as cardboard and paper, can be used to create a nutritious compost that’s great for gardens. Recycling goodie bags were given away and at each event, one lucky resident won a free compost bin or water butt.

29 Jun. 2011

Visitors to the events also had the opportunity to find out more about the revamped green sack service, which gives those residents without a green bin the choice to use their own green sacks or collect them free from outlets across the city to recycle their garden waste. Last year, Sheffield recycled more green sack waste than ever before and the total tonnage since the scheme began is currently at the same weight as a whopping 3,000 family cars! With the new changes making it even easier for residents to recycle their green waste, we are hoping the total next year will be even higher.
Simon (the Scarecrow) Heathcote, recycling assistant at Veolia in Sheffield commented: “The interest in home composting has been fantastic! It’s great to see so many Sheffield residents interested in going green in their garden. Approximately 20% of the average household's rubbish is made up of green garden waste. If this waste ends up in the black wheeled bin, a valuable resource that could be turned into compost is wasted. Residents can keep their gardens clean and tidy and help us to recycle garden waste by using their green waste collection service and home composting.”
Also showcased at last weeks events were posters by design students from local community organisation, Kelvin Media Productions, who had put their creative skills into action to help celebrate National Recycle Week. Amy Cross and Jordan Sedgwick were crowned the winners of a competition held by Veolia to create a poster promoting the benefits of home composting.
Veolia was delighted to be able to work with Kelvin Media Productions on the competition and to see young people engage with recycling. Judge of the competition, Kate Hughes, waste awareness officer at Veolia in Sheffield commented: “The students worked really hard on their designs and produced some amazingly professional posters. It’s a privilege to be able to support young talent while promoting the recycling message.”
For more information on the new green sack collection service or home composting, please visit: www.veolia.co.uk/sheffield or call: 0114 273 4567. If you are a Twitter user and wish to follow us then you can find the ‘Recycle4Sheffield’ profile page at: www.twitter.com/recycle4shef