Fota Wildlife Park has announced that it has partnered with Every Can Counts to help promote the recycling of aluminium drink cans.
Every Can Counts has donated several recycling bins to Fota Wildlife Park, who has begun phasing out the sale of fizzy drinks in plastic bottles in favour or recyclable aluminium canned drinks in its gift shop and ice cream kiosk.
Every Can Counts has donated several green branded bins which are located close to the outlets selling the drinks cans within the Wildlife Park – by the Meerkat enclosure by the main entrance and in the food stall area in the Asian Sanctuary.
Fota Wildlife Park has introduced this new initiative with the aim of further reducing, reusing and recycling waste being produced in the Park.
Lynda McSweeney, Head of Education at Fota said: “Fota Wildlife Park welcomes the collaboration with ‘Every Can Counts’ which will further enhance our commitment to environmental sustainability. We believe that protecting the environment and promoting sustainability compliments our conservation objectives.
“As a conservation organisation, we are in a unique position to encourage environmental stewardship with the aim of inspiring our visitors to become proactive in helping to conserve wildlife and the natural world.”
Green Zone Project
She continued: “Since we started the Green Zone project at Fota Wildlife Park we have seen the volume of waste bring sent to landfill reduced by over two thirds. Recycling rates have soared following the creation of three Green Zones for visitors and food waste from the cafes and restaurant is now separated out and used for composting.”
Róisín O’Brien, Programme Manager of Every Can Counts said: “We are delighted to supply receptacles for the collection of drink cans, the worlds most recycled beverage packaging. It’s great to see Fota Wildlife Park not only provide facilities so their visitors can do the right thing with their cans, but also to take an active role in education – passing on the important messages that recycling cans saves energy and that metal recycles forever.”
Since 2012 Fota Wildlife Park has being operating a ‘Going Green’ programme which has led to the increase in the Park’s recycling rate from 21% to 62%, deploying systems for composting food waste generated onsite from cafes, restaurants and animal food preparation areas, as well as integrated sustainability elements such as rainwater harvesting, solar panels, incorporating hydrothermal heating and geothermal heating into existing systems and a wood boiler into buildings on the site.
Fota Wildlife Park, a not-for-profit organisation, encompasses 100 acres of land on Fota Island, Co Cork and is home to a diverse range of animals many of which are critically endangered. Fota Wildlife Park’s vision is to inspire people to understand and conserve the biodiversity of our natural world.
The core values of conservation, education, research and entertainment have ensured that the Park is uniquely placed to foster greater public understanding of the threats to plant and animal habitats and decreasing global biodiversity.
