Biggest ever recyclable artwork

Norfolk Environmental Waste Services (NEWS), part of the Norse Group, has worked with drinks giant, Coca-Cola, to create the world's biggest-ever recyclable artwork.

Dubbed 'Precious Metal', the artwork is inspired by a Coca-Cola poster from 1949 that shows a lady sunbathing. The drinks company hopes it will encourage people to recycle more this summer. Coca-Cola commissioned artist Robert Bradford, production designer Paul Cross, aerial photographer Jason Hawkes and Norfolk Environmental Waste Services to create the artwork, which comprised 200,000 used aluminium cans and was created on the cliffs at Beachy Head on the Sussex coast.

NEWS was able to supply all the cans for Coke to create the sculpture. The material came from its Costessey waste recycling centre, where all the recyclable waste from local authority doorstep collections in Norfolk is processed.

The sculpture took a week to complete and could only be viewed from the air. It was built to mark Recycle Week (22 - 28 June). The cans have now been sent for recycling which will save enough energy to power a television constantly for 70 years.

Liz Lowe, Citizenship Manager at Coca-Cola Great Britain, said: "Old cans aren't just waste, they're precious metal.  They can live forever through recycling, to be used time and time again to make a whole number of new things, saving huge amounts of energy and raw materials. 
"With this simple message, we want to inspire people to think twice about binning their empty bottles and cans. An empty drinks can that you recycle today could be back on the shelf as a brand new one in just six weeks." 

Steve Jenkins, local authority contracts manager for NEWS, said: "This was a great initiative from Coca-Cola and has helped raised the profile of recycling. Recycling aluminium is 20 times more energy-efficient than making it from scratch. We are very proud that they turned to us to help them with the artwork."

The plant at Costessey is capable of processing 90,000 tonnes of recycled material every year, comprising aluminium and steel cans, paper, card and plastic bottles, which would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Coca-Cola is working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to install Recycle Zones around the UK to help make it easier for people to recycle their cans and bottles in places like shopping centres, theme parks, airports, university campuses and at outdoor events. 

Footage of the sculpture can be seen at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5usjG4Ng0h4
http://itn.co.uk/759cd608219eea3903b6ae0b78baa263.html

NEWS can be contacted on 01603 891892 and at news@norfolk-waste.co.uk, with further information on recycling available at www.norfolk-waste.co.uk