A Record 58 Million Christmas Cards Recycled!
The Woodland Trust, the UK's leading woodland conservation charity, which joined forces with its partners national recycling campaign Recycle Now, WHSmith and Tesco for its eighth annual Christmas card recycling campaign, has broken all previous records to recycle over 58 million cards[1](1,000 tonnes). This is equivalent to at least one card from every person in Britain[2] being recycled.
The record result was announced by Environment Minister, Elliot Morley at a special event held at the head office of the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) in Westminster on Tuesday 29th March, 2005 to celebrate the success.
“Last year’s campaign was a great success, but I am absolutely delighted with this year’s scheme, a 30 per cent[3] increase is phenomenal, all thanks to the public’s involvement and tremendous efforts,” Mr Morley said.
“The Christmas Card Recycling Scheme is a very simple way of engaging everyone with environmental action whilst raising funds for tree planting. Planting a tree is fun and a great way for children to understand the importance of the environment.”
Also present at the ceremony were champion collectors Ben Wiltshire, Hedi Germany and Joshua Shackleton, three of the children from Raglan Primary School in Bromley, which collected an astonishing 336,000 cards for this year’s scheme, smashing their own record by more than 100,000 cards.
Launched by TV impressionist Alistair McGowan, the scheme ran throughout January in WHSmith and Tesco stores across England, Scotland and Wales.
As well as working with Recycle Now and its partners WHSmith and Tesco, the campaign was supported by Nottinghamshire County Council, which administers the support from local authorities on behalf of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers. SCA Recycling and Severnside Recycling collected and recycled the cards.
Penny Pulfrey of the Woodland Trust says: “This is the first time we have exceeded 50 million cards and the first time we have recycled over 1,000 tonnes. I would like to thank everyone who has taken part; the response to this year’s scheme has been brilliant. The environment has benefited by reducing the amount of waste going to landfill and funds raised from the scheme will enable children to plant trees as part of our Tree For All Campaign.”
Jennie Price, chief executive of WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme), which runs the Recycle Now campaign on behalf of the Government said: “The results of the Christmas Card scheme are remarkable and clearly show that more and more people are finding it easy to get into the recycling habit.
“Recycle Now’s partnership with the Woodland Trust is the first of several high profile recycling initiatives we will undertake this year, including Compost Awareness Week (1-7 May), the Big Recycle (27 June-1 July) and Real Nappy Week, (20-27 June). The aim is to encourage people to recycle more things more often and highlight how easy it is to do.”
Looking ahead to 2006, the Trust aims to add to the 292,000,000 cards collected since the scheme began, which placed end to end would be equivalent to 10 trips from London to New York[4]
Next year’s campaign has already received the backing of current partners Tesco, Recycle Now and Nottinghamshire County Council on behalf of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers.
The Scheme is also backed by Defra, Wake up to Waste, the Scottish Executive, Waste Aware Scotland, the Welsh Assembly, Waste Awareness Wales and Waste Watch. For more information visit www.woodland-trust.org.uk/recycling or www.recyclenow.com.
Editor's notes:
Images to accompany this release are available from the Woodland Trust – please contact Gemma Dove Tel: 01476 581112 E-mail: gemmadove@woodland-trust.org.uk
[1] One tonne equals 50,670.64 cards (based on last year’s total of 882 tonnes being the equivalent to 44.7 million cards). Therefore, 1,150 tonnes equals 58,315,319 cards, which we have rounded down to 58 million cards.
[2] Population of England, Scotland and Wales – 57,851,000 – taken from The Mid 2003 Population Estimate Tables from the Office of National Statistics.
[3] This year’s Christmas Card Recycling Scheme recycled 1,150.87 tonnes, a 268.03 tonne increase compared to the total last year of 882.84 tonnes. 268.03 expressed as a percentage of 882.84 is 26 per cent.
[4] Total tonnage including 2005 Christmas Card Recycling Scheme is 5,810 tonnes. Therefore, 5,810 x 50,670.64 (number of cards in one tonne) equals 294,396,418.4 cards. The average size of each card collected was 19 centimetres (height). Over the last eight years 292 million cards have been collected and recycled. Therefore, 294,396,418.4 x 19 cm = 55,935,319 meters. One mile equals 1,609.3 metres, therefore 55,935,319 meters equals 34,757 miles (55,570 kilometers). London to New York is 3,460 miles – 34,757 /3,460 = 10.05 rounded down to 10.
The Woodland Trust
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 www.woodland-trust.org.uk
Tree For All
Tree For All is the largest children’s tree planting initiative the UK has ever seen. It will inspire today’s youngsters to become environmental custodians of the future. It is a bold campaign with the vision that every child should have the chance to plant trees. Over the next five years Tree For All will see:
- 12 million trees planted across the UK – one for every child under the age of 16 in the UK;
- one million people, especially children, involved in planting trees through school planting events, public events and even in their own back gardens;
- a chance for people of all ages to take part and get closer to woodland through community events, planting a tree at home, creating a virtual wood online and a programme of initiatives designed to get us out and in touch with nature throughout the year.
Further information can be found at www.treeforall.org.uk
WRAP/Recycle Now
Recycle Now is the national recycling campaign, funded and managed by WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme).
WRAP is a major UK programme established to promote resource efficiency. Its particular focus is on creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products and removing the barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling.
A not-for-profit company in the private sector, WRAP is backed by substantial Government funding from Defra, DTI and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
WRAP has laid down targets across twelve programmes. Nine are focused on market development, and comprise six material streams (Paper, Plastics, Glass, Wood, Organics and Aggregates) and three generic areas (Business & Finance, Procurement, and Regional Market Development). Three further programmes relate to the wider resource efficiency remit - Collections, Communications and Awareness, and Waste Minimisation. For more information, visit www.wrap.org.uk or www.recyclenow.com
WHSmith
WHSmith Retail is made up of 544 high street stores and 129 airport and station stores. The high street business sells a wide range of newspapers, magazines, stationery, books and entertainment products, while WHSmith Travel sells a tailored range of newspapers, magazines, books and confectionery products for people on the move.
WHSmith High Street will be participating in the Christmas Card Recycling Scheme from 3 January 2005. Christmas cards collected at WHSmith will be reprocessed by SCA Recycling. Aside from its business activity, WHSmith recognises the importance of helping to tackle issues that are vital to local communities and the Christmas Card Recycling Scheme is an excellent example of this. For further details of WHSmith corporate responsibility commitments please visit http://www.whsmithplc.com/grp/social.htm
Tesco
Tesco is the UK's leading retailer, with over 1,000 stores in the UK and an expanding international business. Tesco is committed to minimising the amount of waste produced and to recycle it wherever possible. We have a comprehensive recycling programme for our own operations, including our own recycling units recovering paper, cardboard and plastic. The Christmas Card Recycling Scheme is an important part of our commitment to work with local communities and deliver real environmental benefits. Christmas cards collected at Tesco in 2003 were reprocessed by Severnside Recycling. To find out more visit http://www.tesco.com/everylittlehelps/
Nottinghamshire County Council
Nottinghamshire County Council Waste Management Team is administering the scheme on behalf of the National Association of Waste Disposal Officers (NAWDO). The Waste Management Team at the County has been voted as one of the top 5% in the UK, with “excellent prospects for improvement in their Best Value Performance Review May 2002.” The County Council has also planted over 1 million trees on former colliery sites as part of one of the biggest land reclamation projects in the United Kingdom.
For further information about the County Council visit www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk
Penny Pulfrey
Senior Account Manager
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email media@woodland-trust.org.uk
OX16 0AH
Tel: 01476 581112
pennypulfrey@woodland-trust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust Press Office
Media Relations Manager
OX16 0AH
Tel: 01476 581121
media@woodland-trust.org.uk
