Olympic Legend urges Christmas card recycling

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Matthew Pinsent promotes collection bins in Tesco and WH Smith

Olympic legend Matthew Pinsent may have retired from international competition, but he’s wasted no time in taking on a new role - championing an annual scheme to encourage everyone in the borough to recycle the millions of Christmas Cards they receive this year.

With just 10 days to go until Christmas, the four-times Olympic gold medallist has teamed up with national recycling campaign Recycle Now to lend his support to the Woodland Trust’s Christmas Card Recycling Scheme.

As part of the scheme, special collection bins will be put in every branch of WH Smith and Tesco in Hounslow Borough from 5 January 2005, and Matthew urged everyone to recycle their cards after Christmas instead of just throwing them away. “More than a billion cards will be sent by people in the UK this Christmas and we want to try to recycle as many of those as possible. That’s why Recycle Now has teamed up with the Woodland Trust to ask everyone in the country to post their cards in these special recycling bins,” he said.

“I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone in the run-up to Christmas that recycling their rubbish is of vital importance because card recycling can play a huge part in reducing the millions of tonnes of household waste that will be generated in the UK over Christmas.”

Following the campaign, the cards will be taken to paper mills to be processed into new paper products. Last year, residents of West London recycled a massive 21.782 tonnes of cards. In total, more than 45 million cards were collected and recycled by the scheme, helping the Woodland Trust to save more than 15,000 trees.

Hounslow’s Executive Member for Environment, Councillor Ron Bartholomew, added his support for the scheme: “We are delighted to have been able to team up with Recycle Now and Matthew Pinsent to launch the 2005 Christmas Card Recycling Scheme. Of course, we want it to be a bigger success than the 2004 scheme but we can only do this with the help of the public, so don’t forget to recycle your cards.”

For further information about the campaign, visit www.woodland-trust.org.uk/recycling and www.recyclenow.com

December 15, 2004