50,000 milk bottle lids collected by local schools
Left to right: Blake Caguitla, Jedidah Peralta, and Kezia Herbert with lids collected by Marco School
Stratford District Council’s competition to encourage local schools and early childhood centres to collect plastic milk and cream bottle lids, keeping them out of home recycling bins where they contaminate recycling, has hit its halfway point and the results are already impressive.
Over 50,000 milk and cream bottle lids have been collected during term 3 by nine schools and early childhood centres.
The winner will be one that collects the highest average number of lids for each family that attends by the time the competition closes, so small schools have the same chance of winning as large schools. So far, Marco School, Stratford Childcare Centre and Avon Primary are top contenders for the main prize of a $1,000 local business voucher, with one term left to go.
Peter McNamara, Waste & Water Education Officer at SDC, says his original goal for the whole competition was to collect 15,000 lids.
“The schools and their students, whānau and communities, have blown my goal out of the water, or maybe that should be out of the milk,” he laughs. “And they’re not even done yet.”
“I’ve got milk bottle lids coming out of my ears, but they’ll soon be on the way to The Junction Zero Waste Hub in New Plymouth and Egmont Refuse & Recycling in Hawera, where the lids will all be recycled and reused. Let’s hope they’re ready for them all,” Peter says.
Stratford district has some of the cleanest recycling in Aotearoa New Zealand, with an average recycling contamination rate of around 3%. But, when a recycling bin does contain contamination, lids are often the cause.
Peter says, “Well done to everyone that’s reduced a bit of waste and saved a lid from contaminating recycling bins. You’ve inspired us to now try and collect 100,000 lids by the time the competition closes at the end of term 4. Come on, we can do it!”
Final competition results will be announced in December. Anyone can drop clean plastic milk or cream lids off at a participating school.
More information about the competition is available at Stratford.govt.nz/Lids
