Belfast launches #CircleCity campaign with Coca-Cola to recycle aluminium cans on-the-go

Belfast #CircleCity is a new on-the-go recycling programme in Belfast City Centre, made possible with assistance from The Coca-Cola Foundation. The campaign was launched by Coca-Cola, Belfast City Council, and the environmental organisation Hubbub. The three-month initiative will make recycling aluminium cans and plastic bottles as simple as possible for residents and tourists, increasing recycling rates.

"We're urging everyone to use the new recyclable bins to help us keep as much valuable plastic and aluminium as possible in the loop," said Beau Zilesnick, project lead at Hubbub.

The initiative was made possible with the assistance of The Coca-Cola Foundation and was previously implemented in Dublin city centre. As part of the campaign, 25 bright and colourful recycling bins have been put across Belfast's city centre and many public parks.

"At Coca-Cola, we're committed to realising our ambition of a world without waste by collecting and recycling a bottle or can for each one we sell by 2030. That requires a focus on the entire lifecycle of our products - from how bottles and cans are designed and made to how they're collected, recycled and repurposed. We were delighted to be able to launch this campaign in Dublin and now have the opportunity to expand the campaign to Belfast. Through the Belfast #CircleCity campaign, which is funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation, we want to make it easier for the public to recycle more while they move around the city centre. Raising awareness of the importance of on-the-go recycling is an important step towards creating a closed-loop system that eliminates waste. This is just one of the actions we're taking to help build a circular economy for plastic bottles and cans, including working towards the introduction of the deposit return scheme," said Welcoming the initiative Agnese Filippi, country manager, Coca-Cola Ireland.

Belfast #CircleCity follows the success of similar pilot programmes in Dublin, Leeds, and the London district of Lambeth since 2018. Over 2.5 million aluminium cans, plastic and glass bottles were collected and recycled in prior pilot operations. The previous effort in Lambeth witnessed a 70 per cent drop in contamination (i.e. non-recyclable waste in recycling bins) while boosting recycling by 140 per cent, and the upcoming initiative in Belfast seeks to increase recycling while simultaneously reducing contamination.

Beau Zilesnick, project lead at Hubbub, said, "We're really excited to roll out Belfast #CircleCity as part of our ongoing work to encourage recycling on the go. With eye-catching bins now in place in twelve locations across the UK and Ireland, we are creating consistency and making it easier for people to recycle while out and about."

The City Council of Belfast will collaborate with Hubbub to evaluate the efficacy of the new garbage cans. The findings and lessons from Belfast's #CircleCity will be incorporated into the Hubbub #InTheLoop toolkit, an in-depth guide on implementing successful recycling-on-the-go to benefit other local authorities and organisations interested in the topic.To know more about how recycling will impact the aluminium industry, read the latest e-Magazine launched by AL Circle, 'Recycling - Reshaping the Future of the Aluminium Value Chain.'