Liz Gyekye / packagingnews.co.uk

Coca-Cola helps V Fest goers to
recycle plastic bottles

Music fans helped to recycle 65,965 plastic bottles over the weekend (20-21 August) by bringing their empties to Coca-Cola Enterprises’ (CCE) ‘Swap for Swag’ shop at the V Festival in Weston Park, Staffordshire.

Last year, CCE helped V Festival’s Chelmsford site collect around 24,500 bottles.

CCE’s Swap for Swag recycling initiative encourages festival goers to convert their empty plastic bottles into festival essentials made out of recycled PET.

Amongst the swag up for grabs at V Festival were items including rain ponchos, picnic blankets and t-shirts.

The V Festival line-up included stars such as Rihanna, Eminem and Manic Street Preachers.

In addition to the Swap for Swag shop and recycle garden in the main arena, 30 recycling points were placed around the festival site, and manned by volunteers from Coca-Cola Enterprises, Eco Plastics and vinspired.

They encouraged music fans to recycle their bottles and cans.  Initial figures suggest that a total of approximately 2.27 tonnes of bottles and cans were collected for recycling throughout the event.

The plastic bottles are sent to Lincolnshire-based Eco Plastics to be processed.


‘Casual greens’

Speaking to PN at the V Fest event in Staffordshire, CCE recycling director Patrick McGuirk said that the main aim of the Swap for Swag initiative was to encourage people to recycle, not just at the festival but at home – especially ‘casual greens’.

McGuirk added:  “We are delighted with the success of the recycling effort at V Festival and with how enthusiastically music fans embraced the challenge.  In total, festival goers brought 65,965 bottles to the Swap for Swag shop for recycling – a great result.

“Coca-Cola Enterprises is committed to making recycling easier and more engaging for young people.  It is not just about recycling at the festival, it is about inspiring people to recycle every bottle, every can, every day.

“We want to show people what a difference recycling can make and the festival environment is a great place to spread this sustainability message.”

The away-​from-​home drinks can recycling programme, Every Can Counts (ECC), has also announced that it helped V Festival goers to recycle their cans. It worked in partnership with the waste management contractors for the event – Ryans Cleaning and Panda Waste.

The ECC ‘Can you Kick it’ football challenge gave festival goers the chance to win tickets to V Festival 2012 if they scored four out of four goals on a giant inflatable goal.

In order to have a shot, revellers had to bring two cans for recycling. ECC also provided bags for festival goers to take to the campsite and return later for repeated shots at the goal.

CCE’s Swap for Swag shop will also be rolled out at other major music festivals this summer, including:
●Notting Hill Carnival – 28 August
●Super Saturday, Clapham Common, London – 10 September