Biffa have signed a deal with Saints to become its Official Recycling Partner for the next-two-and-a-half years.
The waste management expert will help the club meet its recycling targets at the Totally Wicked Stadium, whilst engaging in a number of community and education based projects as the club looks to create a better environment.
Up to 95 per cent of the waste that is produced at the stadium can be recycled so this exciting new contract also supports Saints’ Official Kit Partner O’Neills’ vision of developing a recycled yarn suitable to be used in the manufacture of St Helens replica shirts in the future.
“We are delighted to partner with Biffa who demonstrated a complete understanding of the challenges we face to best manage our waste,” Saints Stadium Manager John Murphy explained. “To be able to achieve a recycling target of up to 95 per cent will make a huge difference to us.
“With their guidance, we want our fans and staff to work with us to correctly use the new bins we will place around the Stadium over the coming weeks to start the recycling process.
“Biffa have several excellent ideas to help us, including being one of the first providers to have the ability to recycle coffee and tea paper cups and to introduce reverse vending machines.
“We fully intend to introduce these ideas across the length of the contract and the added incentive for supporters is that for every item they recycle they are supporting the ambitions of both the Club and O’Neills to develop suitable recycled yarns for use in St Helens merchandise in the years ahead.”
As part of the agreement and to continue our aim of being fully integrated in the community, Saints staff and players will also spend time in the local area helping to clear waste from local waterways.
They will also be encouraging supporters to join us, whilst the club’s Community Development Foundation will be working alongside Biffa to deliver their Wasteaters education programme to local primary schools encouraging children to learn how to recycle from an early age.
Nick Rushton, Regional Manager at Biffa, said: “We are really proud to be St.Helens R.F.C.’s official recycling partner, and the whole Biffa team are fully behind supporting them in delivering their recycling targets.
“As part of our offer across the North West we offer a range of zero to landfill solutions and St. Helens already benefit from a 100% diversion from landfill which includes Food, Glass and mixed recycling recovery.
“Our aim moving forward with our partnership is to further develop recycling solutions so as to recycle and reuse as much of the waste produced by the club and their supporters as possible including challenging items such as coffee cups which we now offer a solution to.
“We are confident and totally committed to supporting St Helens with achieving their ambitious and commendable recycling targets.”
Biffa’s livery will appear on the rear of the players’ shorts for the remainder of the 2018 season whilst for 2019 and 2020 it will also be included on all replica versions which will be available to buy from saintssuperstore.com
Biffa will also have a strong presence around the stadium through perimeter advertising and supply of their bins throughout the concourses to help with the club’s drive to recycle.
“We would like to thank Biffa for their partnership with the Club over the next two-and-a-half years,” added Dave Hutchinson, General Manager at Saints. “We were very impressed with their vision to improve our waste management through recycling. We are fully aware of our responsibilities as we generate so much waste at the Stadium, particularly on Matchday, so they will help us manage that far more effectively than before.
“They will also help us to advise our supporters on how best to recycle within the Stadium and in their own homes, and with Saints in the Community delivering their programme to local schoolchildren, we want everyone to think twice on how they should recycle their waste.”
Research has shown that the degradation of approximately 25 x 500ml plastic bottles could potentially result in enough recycled yarn to produce a Saints replica shirt.
This is something that O’Neills are actively testing at the current time in the hope of utilising such yarn for future Saints merchandise.
“We have had requests from other Clubs but Saints are the first to commit to assisting us in the development of recycled yarns suitable for production of their replica kits in future seasons,” Neil Williams, Sales Manager at O’Neills, said. “By partnering with Biffa to allow supporters to directly influence this process and impact on their own Clubs’ kit this represents a huge step forward for all parties involved.
“We are really looking forward to working with the Club to develop this product.”
Picture shows: Neil Williams – Sales Manager at O’Neills, John Murphy – Stadium Manager at St.Helens R.F.C., Nick Rushton – Regional General Manager, North West, at Biffa, Justin Holbrook – Saints Head Coach, Peter Hale – Regional Sales Manager at Biffa.
