Fresh from her stint in the ‘celebrity jungle’ keen recycler Anna Ryder Richardson has teamed up with Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, to launch the annual Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme backed by Cumbria County Council.
An impressive collection target of 100 million cards has been set by the Woodland Trust and Recycle Now, which will enable 24,000 trees to be planted and save 2,600 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases –the same as taking over 800 cars off the road for a year.
Anna Ryder Richardson said: "I love sending and receiving Christmas cards. It’s a great tradition and in the UK we send one billion of them each year. But I want to encourage everyone to remember to recycle them –not only will it help the Woodland Trust plant more trees but it also stops recyclable waste needlessly ending up being sent into landfill and helps the environment."
Special collection bins will be available throughout January at WHSmith high street stores, Tesco stores, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer stores.
All the cards collected during the campaign are taken to paper mills where they are recycled into brand new paper products, with the money raised helping the Woodland Trust plant thousands of new trees throughout the UK.
Sue Holden, Chief Executive of the Woodland Trust, says:
"Your efforts not only prevent cards going to landfill which generates greenhouse gas, but you help us plant thousands of trees. The UK is one of the least wooded countries in Europe –just 12% of the UK is covered by woods compares to the European average of 44%. By recycling your cards, you can help us plant thousands more throughout the UK."
Fridey Cordingley, Head of Recycle Now said:
"Recycling is one New Year’s resolution that is easy to make and keep throughout 2008. Christmas cards are one of the easiest things to recycle after all the festivities have ended and people will not only be helping to support the Woodland Trust but helping to tackle climate change too."
For more information visit http://www.recyclenow.com/ (external link)and http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/cards/ (external link)
ENDS
Media enquiries to Justin Hawkins, Media Officer on 01228 606334
Notes
Participating stores include: All WHSmith mainland stores (excludes Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Belfast and Jersey); all Tesco stores excluding Tesco Express stores and all M&S stores including selected M&S Simply Food stores and excluding stores in the Republic of Ireland.
1 WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment.
2 Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
3 Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
4 Recycle Now is a campaign to encourage people in England to recycle more things more often. Six out of ten of us now describe ourselves as committed recyclers, compared to less than half of us when the campaign began in 2004.
5 More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on http://www.wrap.org.uk/ (external link)and for more information on the Recycle Now campaign visit http://www.recyclenow.com/ (external link)
The Woodland Trust - is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters. The Trust has four key aims: i) No further loss of ancient woodland; ii) Restoring and improving the biodiversity of woods; iii) Increasing new native woodland; iv) Increasing people’s understanding and enjoyment of woodland. Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free. Further news can be found at http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/ (external link)
The Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme.
The cards collected in stores are taken to WHSmith, Tesco, TK Maxx and M&S depots, where they are collected by their own recycling agents (Severnside for Tesco, SCA Recycling for WHSmith and TK Maxx, and GSS for M&S). The cards are then graded and taken to recycling plants where they are treated and eventually turned into new products such as tissue paper, photocopy paper or corrugated cardboard.
Recycling Credits
Money is raised through recycling credits. A recycling credit is the value of the saving made by the County Council in NOT having to landfill any household waste that is recycled. The County Council chooses to pay this saving in disposal costs back to any voluntary or community groups that are involved in collecting household waste for recycling (in the case of the CCRS –the Woodland Trust) because they wish to promote recycling in their area.
The value of the credit varies across the different Districts due to differences in disposal costs, and is paid for each tonne of household waste that is recycled. The value of the credit increases each year with RPI (Retail Price Index) and with any increases in Landfill Tax.