IKEA recycling awareness programme gets underway with Viridor

Posted 1 Jun 2010

Leading recycling company Viridor is working with IKEA to increase awareness and understanding of recycling amongst its employees.

The ‘recycle for IKEA' training and awareness programme was launched on 28 May at IKEA's distribution centre in Peterborough with a roadshow organised by Viridor to highlight how important recycling is to IKEA

Rob Buck, Social and Environment Developer for IKEA, welcomed the awareness programme. He said: "We have very ambitious recycling and recovery targets which can only be achieved if everyone in the company utilise effectively the facilities we have put in place with support from our appointed contractor Viridor.

The Viridor team will also take the ‘recycle for IKEA' roadshow to the company's northern distribution centre in Doncaster later this summer. Both companies aim to improve understanding of recycling and encourage more participation in the scheme among IKEA's 700 employees at the distribution centres.

Teresa Cole, Contract Manager for Viridor, said: "We're thrilled to be part of IKEA's recycling success story. At Viridor we're committed to work in partnership with our customers to help them achieve their targets through integrated solutions.

"The response from IKEA's employees has been fantastic so far and we look forward to continuing engaging with them to drive landfill diversion even higher".

The ‘recycle for IKEA' roadshows follow from a successful site visit to the Materials Recycling Facility in Peterborough late in April by 22 managers and Team Leaders from IKEA to find out how Viridor is helping IKEA achieve its ‘zero waste to landfill' ambitions.

Forming part of IKEA's "People's Day" initiative, the managers and Team Leaders learnt how the MRF sorts thousands of tonnes of recyclable materials from local businesses and households to produce high quality raw materials for the manufacturing of new products and packaging.

Last year Viridor was awarded a recycling-led waste management contract to handle waste arising annually from IKEA's two main distribution operations in the UK located in Peterborough and Doncaster.

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