Young people moving away from home for the first time are the target of a major campaign by Friends of Glass, the European body that promotes glass packaging for food and drink.
Students are invited to post a photo of themselves and their flat mates recycling glass on their University ‘Student Switch Off’ Facebook page. The photos will be entered in a competition which runs until Friday 7th December with the chance of winning a £225 Virgin Day Experience or runner’s up prizes of Love2shop vouchers.
Find your universities’ Student Switch Off page by clicking any of the following links: University of York, University of Oxford and Cardiff University.
The initiative is the result of a partnership between British Glass, which runs the Friends of Glass campaign in the UK, and the National Union of Students (NUS) which operates Student Switch Off, the not-for-profit campaign that encourages students to save energy.
Jenni Richard, Senior Advisor on Environment, Health and Safety at British Glass, said: “Our research shows that only around 50% 18-29 year olds in the UK know that glass can be infinitely recycled, compared with 77% of those aged between 55-59*, so students are a group we are keen to reach.
“The campaign is targeted particularly towards those in their first year away from home, when new habits are being formed. The aim is to help them have fun learning about the properties and environmental benefits of glass packaging and why it’s important to recycle.”
Jen Strong, Programme Manager for Student Switch Off comments “We’re delighted to be working with Friends of Glass on this initiative. Recycling glass fits really well with our wider campaign to encourage positive actions on climate change by students and is clearly is an important action for anyone who cares about the environment and wants to build a more resource efficient future.”
The bottle-saving drive will run throughout the 2018/2019 academic year, with Edinburgh University due to join early next year.
*The omnibus survey was carried out in partnership with the Research Institute Respondi in 2016 and had a sample size of 1,000 for United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. For further results see www.friendsofglass.com/gb
See here for full terms and conditions of the competitions.
Sign up to the Friends of Glass mailing list here and you could win a £10 Love2Shop Voucher.