In a move to encourage more households to recycle, Douglas Borough Council waste services section took stands at this year’s Tynwald Day celebrations in St John’s and at Noble’s Park fun day, with encouraging results.

The Tynwald Day initiative was a joint venture with the Isle of Man Government which provided the stand and promotional material, and the western civic amenity site, while council officers offered advice and information, notably educational material such as that presented at the council’s Ballacottier recycling centre and available on recyclenow.im.

The Noble’s Park fun day saw waste services officers manning a stand with information, together with a ‘Bring It, Bin It, Recycle It’ challenge, a video presentation of the Ballacottier recycling process and one of the council’s recycling vehicles  - ‘Rocky the Recycling Wagon’ - strategically parked to capture the public’s attention.

Reflecting on the two initiatives environmental services chairman Ritchie McNicholl said: ‘Feedback from the two events has been very encouraging and thanks are due to our government partners and to our officers for engaging members of the public so successfully, especially young children, who clearly thoroughly enjoyed discovering the recycling journey items such as drinks cans take.

‘The younger generation are unwittingly playing a key role in promoting recycling; many of them are coming home from school after attending educational sessions given by our waste services officers and seeing “Rocky the Recycling Wagon” then pestering their parents to do more recycling.

‘At Tynwald Day and the fun day a good number of adults were genuinely interested to learn about what we do at our processing centre and to discover that not all household waste is simply sent to be incinerated.

‘There were also people who lived outside Douglas who wanted to know why they couldn’t have a kerbside collection and our officers encouraged them to speak with their local commissioners. Others took away kerbside recycling calendars and there were several instances where a householder would tell our officers they were the only one in their area who recycled and that were going to try to encourage their neighbours to recycle or to recycle more.

‘The council is working hard to deliver a smarter, more efficient service and make it easier for people to recycle. The more material removed from the waste stream, the fewer visits our waste collection vehicles have to make to the energy from waste plant and the fewer gate fees are incurred. In addition, the council is seizing the opportunities presented by the market demand for recycled materials, which means there are genuine cost benefits the council can pass on to its ratepayers.

‘In short, the council is sending out a clear message: that recycling brings environmental and economic benefits, not just for this generation but for the generations that follow.’

For more information on recycling and the kerbside collection service visit recyclenow.im

Pictured: Douglas Borough Council’s recycling stand at the Noble’s Park Fun Day. Picture Andrew Barton.