SCOTTISH celebrities are being encouraged to change their ways on national television by recycling and sustainable waste specialists, Viridor.
Personalities including River City star, Stephen Purdon (Shellsuit Bob); comedian and broadcaster, Fred MacAulay; and funny man, Des McLean; visit Viridor facilities as part of a new STV series which aims to make them aware of their impact on the environment, and of what happens when they make just the slightest change to their habits.
Last week’s season premiere, broadcast at 8pm on Wednesday and watched by tens of thousands of viewers, saw Viridor help BBC Scotland’s Shellsuit Bob face up to his wasteful ways as he looked at the impact of eWaste, focusing on recycling small domestic appliances at the firm’s specialist waste electrical and electronic equipment facility in Perth.
Actor, Stephen Purdon, joined Viridor employee, Kevin, for the day as they followed a recycling process which recovers some 95 per cent of all inputs to site, whilst talking ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 computers as discarded technology zipped past on recycling lines.
In the same episode, comedian, Des McLean, learned how the facility manages e-waste from 96 per cent of Scottish local authorities and followed employee, Marcin, as together they recycled unwanted televisions from across the country. With hilarious consequences, Des McLean donned specialist protective equipment before he entered the ‘TV graveyard’ which recycles some 350,000 Scottish TVs each year.
So impressed were the pair with their experiences, they vowed a renewed focus on waste reduction, with Stephen Purdon admitting his motivation was having completed “the hardest day’s work” of his life with Viridor.
Future episodes will focus on comedian, Fred MacAulay, following the glass recycling process, from glass collected at his home in South Lanarkshire, through to Viridor’s specialist glass recycling facility in Midlothian, before heading for remanufacture into loft insulation for Scottish homes.
Mr MacAulay said: “I followed the journey of a glass bottle from bottle bank to glass fibre insulation. I was very naive before, and would assume most of it just went to landfill. But they’re taking around seven or eight massive lorries a day at this place. The quantities are phenomenal.”
A further episode sees football commentator, Chick Young, examine the plastic bottle recycling process, ending at Viridor’s polymer recycling facility at Slekmersdale before high-quality plastic pellets and flakes are returned to Scotland in a new generation of consumable goods.
Martin Grey, Viridor’s Scottish communications manager, said: “How we reduce, reuse, recycle then recover renewable energy from waste is rightly important not only for the environment, but also for individual everyday expenses.
‘With Viridor leading Scottish investment in advanced recycling technologies, we were delighted to show our Scottish celebrities both how we transform waste as part of their search for more sustainable lifestyles.
“Small changes to our daily routines can make a big difference and were proud to showcase the excellent work colleagues such as Kevin and Marcin in Perth, or Rob in Midlothian are doing to help deliver a zero waste economy.”
Too Good to Waste is broadcast on STV at 20:00hrs on Wednesday evenings, with the opportunity to catch-up on missed episodes via the STV Player and at greenerscotland.org
MEDIA RELEASE posted by Viridor. You too can post media releases (aka press releases) on allmediascotland.com. For more information, email here.
Contact: Martin Grey
Phone: 07717 797 133
Email: mgrey@viridor.co.uk
Website: http://www.viridor.co.uk
