New College Lanarkshire partners with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners to launch campus deposit return scheme for plastic bottles.
Students across the Motherwell, Coatbridge and Cumbernauld campuses at New College Lanarkshire will be incentivised to recycle their plastic bottles using reverse vending machines (RVMs).
On these three campuses, Students will be charged a 20p deposit when buying a plastic bottle, which can be redeemed through RVMs in the college’s canteens.
Commenting on the scheme, New College Lanarkshire Deputy Principal Ronnie Gilmour said: “We are delighted to be a partner on this initiative.
“We know that living in a clean and sustainable environment is very important to our students. I’m sure the data gathered through the scheme will make an important contribution to understanding behaviour around recycling.”
We know that living in a clean and sustainable environment is very important to our students.
The scheme will run throughout September as part of a study to build on learnings from a previous campaign, which tested various interventions and messaging to encourage students to recycle and think about their waste disposal choices, as well as their motivations for recycling.
Alongside the scheme, three student households will document their experience with the deposit return scheme (DRS) over two weeks.
The previous campaign, led by Keep Scotland Beautiful, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) and the University of Strathclyde, gathered behavioural insights from more than 200 students. The campaign found that half of the students felt that an incentive would encourage them to recycle more.
Jo Padwick, Senior Sustainability Manager at CCEP GB, commented: “Giving students the chance to live with a DRS – something that will soon be a part of everyday life – will allow us to see first-hand how people interact with RVMs in reality.
“Hearing directly from students over four weeks will give us honest, human insight into both the practical and behavioural barriers to adoption, as well as what really motivates them to take part.”