Every Can Counts for Fota recycling

FOTA Wildlife Park have launched a new recycling initiative in partnership with Every Can Counts by installing bins for aluminium cans throughout the park.

In a bid to become even more eco-friendly, Fota Wildlife are planning to stop selling fizzy drinks in plastic bottles and instead use aluminium cans.

As part of this initiative, Every Can Counts have donated recycling bins that have been installed throughout the park so that visitors can dispose of them correctly.

Every Can Counts launched in Ireland in 2012, with the main goal of encouraging people to recycle their aluminium cans, whether it’s at home, in work or at the local wildlife park.

Fota brought in the “Going Green” programme in 2012 and have since increased their recycling waste from 21% to 62%.

Park initiatives include using food waste from the café as compost and harvesting rainwater. They’ve also added solar panels and a wood boiler into buildings on the site, and incorporated hydrothermal heating and geothermal heating into existing systems.

Speaking about the latest initiative, Fota’s Head of Education, Lynda McSweeney, 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.”

“Since we started the Green Zone project at Fota Wildlife Park we have seen the volume of waste being 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.”