Finlake promotes recycling

QUEUES OF people in a middle of a field – sounds more like Glastonbury than the 5-star Finlake Holiday Park at Chudleigh, near Newton Abbot in Devon.

But the recycling point in the heart of the park has been so popular that guests have been queuing up to use it!

Finlake, run by Haulfryn, was already recycling waste produced on site, but there was no facility for guests to recycle waste generated during their stay.

However, in July 2007, Maintenance Manager Andy Forte decided to change this and built a wooden recycling centre around five different bins for guests to recycle cardboard, paper, plastic bags, plastic bottles and glass.

And before this recyclable waste is collected each week, the cardboard, plastic bottles and tin are compacted and baled using an air operated baler supplied by waste solutions company Mil-tek.

This reduces the volume of the materials, preventing the need for large transportation to pick it up and making Finlake’s skip area much tidier.

Finlake also uses a Mil-tek X-Press baler to compact general, non-recyclable waste to cut the quantity and frequency of its skip lifts.

Mr Forte said: “Using the balers really helps us manage the waste effectively. All 300 holiday homes are self-catering, so there is lots of waste tins and glass in particular and guests have made a big effort to use the recycling point.

“If though people are on holiday, they still want to do their bit and carry on recycling their waste like they normally would at home. The recycling centre has really taken off – I think I’ll need to make another one!”

As a result of Finlake’s recycling efforts, around 50% of its waste is now recycled instead of being sent to landfill. And the park has also introduced heat saving devices for our indoor swimming pool and have set up a ‘plant a tree’ scheme, amongst lots of others things.

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