Blenheim Backing Zero Waste Week
Sep 03, 2018
Blenheim is backing a worldwide commitment to significantly reduce the amount of waste ending up as landfill.
Running from the 3rd to the 7th of September, ‘Zero Waste Week’ is an annual awareness campaign for reducing landfill globally.
As part of the Oxfordshire UNESCO World Heritage Site’s support for the campaign they have made a series of pledges online to further reduce their levels of waste.
These include an estate-wide cardboard recycling campaign incorporating the installation of a large compactor, as well as dedicated Recycling Operative and staff training to encourage sustainable behaviour across its operations.
During last year’s Zero Waste Week, Blenheim introduced waste segregation across all its offices and operations with items separated for recycling into different branded bins.
This, along with the adoption of a revolutionary way of managing, segregating and storing waste on the Estate, has led to a 50% increase on recycling rates in a year.
Blenheim’s Sustainability Advisor, Jacqueline Gibson, said: “We have begun to view our waste as a resource, and aim to send as much as possible back into the manufacturing process.
“This is often referred to as the circular economy, where we not only reap financial savings, but reduce the amount of virgin material needed to produce goods and products.
“With everybody at Blenheim on board, we have been able to reassess our activities in a bid to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, production of waste, and reliance on depleting natural resources.”
“Among our range of sustainability commitments was an ambitious Zero Waste to Landfill target made in March this year. In July we were delighted to report that 99 per cent of waste was successfully diverted from landfill after leaving the Estate – the highest percentage to date,” she added.
In May this year Blenheim was assessed against 10 key sustainability themes, as part of the Green Tourism Business Scheme. Last week it received a GOLD Green Tourism Award with a top score of 88%. This puts Blenheim Palace in the top two per cent of ‘Green Tourism’ businesses worldwide.
Blenheim have also installed 10 electric vehicle chargers, introduced the new Twizy EV driving experience and offer discount to visitors travelling to the estate via sustainable public transport.
- Blenheim would like to encourage readers to sign up and make their own pledge to support Zero Waste Week here:www.zerowasteweek.co.uk
