RECYCLING in South Lanarkshire is a roaring success. That was the message delivered by Scotland’s leading recycling firm, Viridor’s newest ‘recruit’ – a ten-foot high dinosaur made entirely of recyclable materials from local household waste recycling centres.
The centre stage exhibit of the country’s annual Bothwell Scarecrow Festival, Recyclosaurus, was a topical feature of Viridor’s annual community sponsorship in partnership with South Lanarkshire Council.
Recyclosaurus, the brainchild of South Lanarkshire contract manager, Maureen Duncan, and household waste recycling site supervisor, John Lloyd, was the latest in a line of recycling-themed entries to the annual festival.
Previous entries featured a collection vehicle and driver made of recyclable materials, a robot designed from waste electrical items and a scarecrow waste collection operative.
The dinosaur, comprising cans, bottles and jars, with feet made from discarded irons, took the team of recycling operatives over six weeks to design and build.
With interactive signage encouraging kids, families, residents and visitors to share images across social media, hundreds of ‘selfies’ with Recyclosaurus were shared across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
Viridor’s household waste recycling site supervisor, John Lloyd, said: “As a business really committed to our work with schools and local communities, our annual entry in the scarecrow festival is a really fun way of raising the profile of recycling.
“Recycling is a real Scottish success story, with families, young people and kids instinctively doing the right thing.
“In addition to reminding others to place the right stuff in the right bin, it opens young minds to careers in an increasingly high-tech, professional Scottish resources sector.
“Whilst the team invested long hours, coming in early, working over lunch and staying late, the feedback was phenomenal.
“Families from across Scotland visited and shared ‘selfies’ across social media. Pictures of our creation circulated across the globe in tweets and shares from Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, MPs, MSPs, councillors and others. It was great to see.”
Maureen Duncan, contract manager for Viridor, added: “Our annual entry to the festival has taken a life of its own, with the pressure on each year to do better than the one before.
“We’ve got a great team of people at our sites who love giving something back to our community.
“Whilst Recyclosaurus was without doubt our best effort to date, the team are already turning their thoughts to next year.”
Following the conclusion of the week-long festival and the ‘Grand Scarecrow Parade’, the business has been inundated with requests from schools and community groups to home the plastic prehistoric creation.
A decision on a permanent home is expected in the coming weeks.
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Viridor contact details…
Contact: Martin Grey
Phone: 07717797133
Email: mgrey@viridor.co.uk
Website: http://www.viridor.co.uk
