VenuesWest and Australian Food and Grocery Council‟s Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF)

VenuesWest and the Packaging Stewardship Forum's project partnership encourages 1.3 million visitors a year to ‘Do the Right Thing, Use the Right Bin'.

Member for Wanneroo, Paul Miles MLA, representing WA Minister for Environment and Water, the Hon Bill Marmion, officially launched new away from home recycling systems at VenuesWest sporting facilities at Mt Claremont.

The launch officially marks the partnership between VenuesWest and the Australian Food and Grocery Council‟s Packaging Stewardship Forum (PSF), a project that has seen the installation of away from home recycling bins at Challenge Stadium, the WA Basketball Centre and WA Athletics Stadium. The project will to support the recovery and recycling of plastic bottles, glass bottles and aluminium cans.

The recycling initiative was launched at the WA Basketball Centre with the „Race to Recycle‟, a competition involving nearly 60 Perth school children from Notre Dame Primary School actively learning about the importance of recycling.

The project will divert more than 70 tonnes of beverage containers from landfill annually, enough to stretch end to end from the Basketball Centre to Fremantle, or fill more than 9,700 household wheelie bins.

"This project fits with WA‟s Waste Strategy, which aims to improve the state‟s recycling rates. I commend the beverage industry and VenuesWest for their partnership on this project, and encourage other venues across WA to get involved and partner with the PSF to provide the infrastructure needed to increase our recycling rates," said Paul Miles MLA, Member for Wanneroo.

Jenny Pickles, General Manager of the PSF, said, "It‟s great to have VenuesWest on board with new recycling systems for its visitors. It is through partnerships like this that we can make it just as easy for Western Australian‟s to recycle away from home as it is when they‟re at home, and to encourage people to Do the Right Thing, Use the Right Bin".

VenuesWest‟s CEO, David Etherton, said he was excited to partner with the PSF to work towards improved recycling by visitors to the Mt Claremont precinct.

"Through this initiative we hope to recover 70 tonnes of plastic bottles, glass bottles and aluminium cans for recycling each year. The PSF‟s funding has ensured that recycling becomes as big a focus for VenuesWest as renewable energy and other sustainability initiatives have been in the past," said Mr Etherton.

VenuesWest have seen 2,945 events and 130,507 total hours of bookings from 2010 - 2011. Throughout the events and bookings that they receive each year, VenuesWest‟s objective is to provide away from home recycling opportunities to all visitors to the Mt Claremont sporting precinct.