Earth Today | LASCO Recycling Project rakes in 2,300 pounds of plastics at 2018 Pink Run

THE LASCO Recycling Project, which was undertaken at last month's ICWI/Reach to Recovery Pink Run, has yielded significant returns, with as much as 58,700 plastic bottles - the equivalent of over 2,300 pounds - collected on race day.

The initiative was made possible through a partnership between the LASCO Recycling Project team and the Recycling Partners of Jamaica Limited, which saw the collection and sorting of plastic bottles for recycling.

The fourth staging of the ICWI/Reach to Recovery Pink Run had a record participation of over 5,000 registrants, with the proceeds from the run going towards Jamaica Reach to Recovery.

"LASCO has over six years of engaging at the primary and prep school levels in environmental awareness, education, best practices and recycling through the LASCO REAP initiative. If we can educate kids and get them on board, we can make the same effort with older children and adults," said Lyshon Davis, brand manager for LASCO iCool and iDrade, and hydration partner for the Pink Run.

"We simply have to provide the resources. We brought in bins repurposed from our factory, provided trained volunteers and partnered with the Recycling Partners of Jamaica for additional team members and collection. We wanted to ensure environmental best practices and solutions were enacted and made available for attendees and to hopefully inspire everyone to rethink what they throw in the garbage and to make recycling an everyday practice," she added.

Samantha Samuda, chairperson for the ICWI/Reach to Recovery Pink Run is pleased with the partnership and proud of the recycling efforts executed for the fourth staging of the ICWI/Reach to Recovery Pink Run.

Awareness

"We're very happy that LASCO has decided to take on the recycling. One of the things that we have always said that we wanted to do when we put on the run this year was to ensure that we were environmentally aware. We know that there was a lot of water drunk and we wanted to ensure that we were keeping pace with what the environment here in Jamaica and the world needs - to try and be plastic free," she noted.

Carolind Graham, chairperson of Jamaica Reach to Recovery, shared her sentiments.

"First I need to tell LASCO thanks for the rehydration because once you have done a 5K, you really need the water and the iDrade. Now in terms of recycling, there is excellent conversation happening about its potential impact as well as the whole issue of global warming and the problems that we have. So it really is a wonderful thing that LASCO is taking action, by collecting their bottles and those brought to the event and recycling."

Along with collecting over 58,000 bottles, the event put in place measures to allow swift garbage collection and sub-sequent disposal through Minott Services and numerous volunteers.