Nottingham Forest Programme, 14th April 2007
Helping the Environment and the Club
In 2003 Bees United together with Club launched the Bee Green printer cartridge recycling initiative and in 2005 added mobile phones to the scheme. Since this time thousands of printer cartridges have been recycled, not all of them being valuable but nevertheless, together with the mobile phones, the scheme has raised over £2,500. This money is essentially from rubbish! It does not cost you anything and only requires you to bring your old phones (including the chargers) and cartridges along to Griffin Park.
Recycling is not just good for the Club, look at the benefits for the environment:
- There are currently 50 million mobile handsets in circulation in the UK and between 10 and 15 million people are expected to replace their handsets with new phones this year in the UK alone. Many of these phones are ultimately thrown away.
- Most replaced phones end up in landfill waste sites where the dangerous metals, including cadmium, nickel and lithium, can leak into the environment, including the water-supply. These metals can be extracted from the batteries and safely re-used.
- 15 million handsets represent 1500 metric tonnes of waste, which would be equivalent to burying 9 Boeing 747s (engines and all) in UK landfill sites each year.
- In the UK alone, more than 30 million inkjet cartridges are dumped per year. That’s 1800 tonnes a year, weighing the same as 18 blue whales or 782 elephants.
- Because of the plastic used to make printer cartridges, it can take up to 1000 years for just one cartridge to decompose.
If you enjoy a curry, what about these facts?
- On average, one inkjet cartridge is made out of 90 ml of oil. If this was vegetable oil, we would be able to prepare a traditional Vindaloo to serve 6 people!
- A laser cartridge requires much more oil, roughly 3.5 litres to put a number on it. (That’s enough vegetable oil to prepare 234 servings of Vindaloo!)
- Scientists have estimated that one printer cartridge can be remanufactured anywhere between 3 and 7 times, so recycling and reusing just one printer cartridge could save up to 7000 years off decomposing printer cartridges. Buying recycled printer cartridges is also cheaper!
- Currently between 20% and 30% of all printer cartridges sold worldwide will be recycled. With your help, in 10 years time this figure could be increased to 45%.
To recycle simply save your old cartridges, ideally in the box the replacement was supplied in, and bring them along to the collection point in the Braemar Road forecourt. If you have 10 or more cartridges then arrangements can be made for them to be collected. If you have a mobile phone then give it to a bucket collector.
Please do not stop at collecting cartridges/phones yourself. Encourage friends, family, the firm that you work for or your college or school to participate in the scheme. By saving these cartridges you will be helping to protect the environment and to ensure the survival Brentford FC. If you wish to find out more about recycling contact your local council or recycling group. Brentford’s can be found at www.bragonline.org.uk
Let’s work together!
Jon Gosling
PS We would like to expand the scheme so if you are interested in helping, then please contact me care of the Club.
Comments can either be sent to me on or directly via comments page.
14th April 2007