Council Recycling Fund Supports Green Initiatives at SERC

Ards and North Down Borough Council’s innovative recycling fund has successfully supported environmental projects headed by students at South Eastern Regional College (SERC).  

The Council’s Recycling Community Investment Fund (RCIF) provided funding to support the SERC Student Enterprise company ‘Don’t Bird It, Bin It’ and the college’s ongoing green initiatives.  

‘Don’t Bird It, Bin It’ is an environmental project that was created to tackle the plastic waste problem through education. RCIF funding helped students offer an educational package tailored for local primary schools. This included visual aids and resources to demonstrate how detrimental plastic is to wildlife and eco-system.  

Stephen Addy, the Council’s Head of Regulatory Services, said, “The RCIF is powered by the recycling efforts of local residents and businesses. It costs the Council half as much to recycle waste compared to the cost of sending it to landfill. Thanks to an increased amount of recycling by the local community, the savings allowed the Council to create the RCIF which supports new and existing environmentally friendly initiatives such as excellent work being carried out by SERC’s students.”  

Lizzie Buick, Deputy Head of Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at SERC, said,  “With funding from Ards and North Down Borough Council's RCIF, the Enterprise and Estates Departments at SERC were able to install 35 internal and four external recycling bins across our Bangor, Ards and Holywood campuses. The team also ran an internal competition for students to create art that would be displayed on the bins that encouraged recycling both on campus and in the local community. The recycling bins are part of a wider programme to build on our green credentials across the College.”  

For more information about recycling in Ards and North Down, visit ardsandnorthdown.gov.uk/recycling.  

Pictured above (L-R) SERC Enterprise team Lizzie Buick, Jake Collyer, Karen McCartan, Charlotte Buick, Stephen Addy (Ards and North Down Borough Council), Natasha Lloyd, Rachel Innes, Megan Rollins and Dearbhla Knight.