Green move for Belladrum festival

Reverse vending machines for recycling are set to strike a chord with Belladrum festival-goers next month.

The Co-op has teamed up with TOMRA to launch a deposit return scheme trial at music festival, with the Keep Britain Tidy campaign set to benefit.

The link-up will see the machines placed in “recycling rooms” in the Co-op pop-up store at the festival, which runs from August 1-3.

Customers will pay a mandatory 10p deposit when they buy plastic bottles of up to two litres in size at the store. They can then use the machines to return their empty bottles for recycling and get their deposit back in the form of a voucher to spend in store.

Alternatively, they can choose to donate the money to Keep Britain Tidy, and any unclaimed deposits will also go to the charity.

The machines accept only plastic bottles but to help recycling and reduce littering, they will accept bottles not bought at the Co-op.

Truls Haug, managing director of TOMRA Collection Solutions UK and Ireland, said: “Ahead of the formal introduction of a deposit return scheme in Scotland, this represents a great opportunity for Belladrum’s music fans to experience for themselves the ease and simplicity of reverse vending and deposit return.

“We are delighted to be supporting this great event and to have the chance to boost its sustainability credentials, while hopefully promoting good recycling habits.”

Co-op partnership manager Alasdair Fowle said bottles posted into these festival machines will be recycled into the retailer’s own brand water bottles.

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