Westfield will be hosting a series of sustainable-focused events until October 28 at its London centres, aiming to raise awareness and educate consumers on ways they can implement better choices in their everyday lives, and help contribute towards a more sustainable future. Visitors can recycle a range of items, from clothing at the We.are pop up event or TRAID textile collection points, used make-up products thanks to Maybelline and coffee cups via a reverse vending machine.
In line with its Better Places 2030 commitment, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield is aiming to reduce the Group’s carbon emissions by 50% and has continued to make great strides towards reducing its own carbon footprint and encouraging consumers to make more sustainable decisions too.
Research from Material Focus found that 46% of Brits do not know electricals can be recycled. To help tackle electrical waste and in partnership with Material Focus, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City recently hosted a Giant Toaster ‘Recycle Your Electricals’ pop-up event which featured a giant colourful toaster, designed by artist Eloisa Henderson-Figueroa. Visitors could bring their unwanted old toasters and small electricals, drop them off inside the vibrant toaster, which was collected and distributed to recycling points and to charities. The aim of the campaign was to educate shoppers on ways they can reduce electrical waste and to encourage UK households to stop throwing away or hoarding electricals items and instead donate or recycle them.
Now, as part of Westfield’s ongoing commitment to encourage sustainable shopping, it will be bringing back for the seventh time the popular we are. pop-up event, giving shoppers the chance to refresh their wardrobes with trendy upcycled clothing.
Meanwhile, a study from WRAP, conducted in 2019, found that 336,000 tonnes of used clothes are either burned or buried in landfill each year. To help combat this waste issue, Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City have launched two permanent textile recycling banks at its centres in partnership with TRAID – a charity working to reduce wearable clothes waste in the UK – with the hopes to encourage consumers to reduce their textile waste by making recycling more accessible.
For those looking to improve their environmental footprint in the beauty sector, visitors at Westfield London can recycle old make-up products outside Boots thanks to Maybelline’s “Maybe Together We Can Do More” campaign.
And following the success of coffee cup recycling and food waste processing systems at Westfield Stratford City over the past two years, Westfield London has launched the WasteMaster food and organic waste processor to over 30 restaurants at the centre this month to support its ‘zero waste to landfill’ missions. The coffee cups and grounds collection scheme has so far saved over 35,000 cups and 14.2 tonnes of coffee grounds. Recycling from all public and retailer waste continues and the next objective for the centre is to introduce a responsible Used Cooking Oil Collection Service for tenants. In addition, a new Reverse Vending Machine is now live at Westfield London and is one of the first of its kind in the UK and rewards consumers who recycle their used coffee cup with a 15% discount on coffee at any Caffe Concerto branch.
Alyson Hodkinson, general manager and UK head of CSR at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, said: “We’re proud of the partnerships and initiatives that we have developed to facilitate and educate our consumers on living more sustainably. By working with trusted partners to adopt new processes and recycling programmes in the workplace to support our ‘zero waste to landfill’ goals, we can provide visitors with the tools and knowledge on how they can take steps towards reducing their carbon footprint and creating thriving communities.”
