Beirut, In an effort to maintain a greener and cleaner environment, Spinneys, Servicorp and
Nestlé Waters have decided to join hands to promote the recycling of plastic bottles and cans in Lebanon. Dubbed “Protect Lebanon – Recycle Today”, the initiative revolves around the placement of Reverse Vending Machines in several Spinneys stores and will be piloted for the first time in Lebanon in the Dbayeh and Achrafieh stores of Spinneys.
The Reverse Vending Machine will be placed near the store entrance and can be used by any consumers to collect all kinds of water and beverage plastic bottles as well as aluminum cans for recycling. Servicorp, a leading service provider in Lebanon, will supply the machines and will send the collected plastic and aluminum material for recycling. In order to encourage recycling and environmental best practices, Spinneys will offer a special incentive supported by Nestlé Pure Life®to consumers for sorting and bringing their empty plastic bottles or aluminum cans to the machines.
Ralph El Kahi, Group Advertising & Communications Manager for Spinneys commented on this project: “At Spinneys, we are actively involved in promoting green initiatives, to ensure our active involvement in reducing our carbon footprint thus contributing in preserving our planet’s resources. Such initiatives include the introduction of reusable bags, shopping trolleys and hand baskets made of recycled materials, the use of reusable papers on our printed communication and reduced use of paper and labels thanks to more advanced technology.Through this reverse vending machine initiative, we hope to convince our customer base that bringing the empty bottles and cans for recycling will become part of the shopping experience in our stores.”
Mr. Mohamad Ali Hodeib, Managing Director for Servicorp explained the concept behind the Reverse Vending Machine: “It is a modern-style solution to recycling. It is designed to reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfill. Each machine can hold up an average of 600 bottles and cans, and can easily recognize non-recyclable materials. We hope that through this new initiative, consumers will get used to segregate their waste and think properly before throwing plastic and cans”.
Mr. Luc Ronat, General Manager for Nestle Waters in Lebanon stated: “Over the past few years, we managed to reduce significantly our use and waste of plastic due to our program towards the use of lighter plastic bottles and efforts to minimize waste during our bottling process. We are particularly pleased to take part in this original and innovative way of increasing and promoting plastic recycling among the public, which still stands at a very low level in Lebanon.”
Based on the pilot results, the initiative will be extended to other Spinneys store locations. Together Spinneys, Servicorp and Nestle Waters are committed to escalate the recycling process of plastic bottles and cans and raise the public awareness on the importance of such practices aiming at protecting the environment in Lebanon.
Source : www.zawya.com
