L to R Tim Roberts, Regional General Manager of NSW Westfield, Angela D'Amore, Parliamentary Secretary to the NSW Minister for Climate Change and Environment and Alec Wagstaff, Chair Australian Packaging Covenant and Director, Corporate Affairs, Coca-Cola Amatil.
Westfield Shopping Centres have become the first in Australia to establish a coordinated public place bottle recycling service.
The initiative was launched at Westfield Burwood in August by Parliamentary Secretary to the NSW Minister for Climate Change and the Environment, Angela D'Amore.
Once rolled out nationally, the program will divert 675 tonnes of beverage containers from landfill each year.
Ms D'Amore said Westfield's leadership is helping to meet NSW goals to increase opportunities for people to recycle away from home.
"We need to give people the same recycling signals and systems when they are 'out and about' as they have at home," Ms D'Amore said.
"Shoppers at 13 Westfield shopping centres in NSW can now recycle cans, PET and glass bottles with ease.
The Public Place Recycling initiative is partnership between industry and government through the Australian Packaging Covenant. Funding partners include the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), Australian Packaging Covenant Industry Association, state governments in the ACT, NSW, QLD, SA, VIC and WA and the Coca–Cola system in Australia.
Westfield have also established an engaging consumer promotion to accompany the recycling roll out, to demonstrate the environmental impact that recycling even a single PET, glass bottle or aluminium can have on the environment.
"We are very proud to announce the installation of our recycling infrastructure," said Timothy Roberts, Regional General Manager of NSW Westfield.
"This is an important element of Westfield's over–arching sustainability program. Our program will empower our shoppers to recycle and understand that every bottle and can counts".
Jenny Pickles, AFGC Packaging Stewardship Forum General Manager said the program was a great example of the types of proactive programs industry is undertaking to address the issue of packaging product stewardship.
"It shows that great things can be achieved through partnerships between industry and government," she said.
Every bottle or can recycled reduces the impact of greenhouse gases on the environment. The aluminium, glass and plastic materials in the beverage containers will be recycled to be used in other products such as carpets, fabrics and of course, more beverage containers.