Recycle your emtpy ink cartridges today!
As part of the Paradise Wildlife Park ‘Green Scheme' which looks at ways of creating a more environmentally friendly attraction we have just launched a brand new recycling scheme for ink cartridges. This exciting new scheme allows us to recycle all the empty ink cartridges from our offices, meaning less waste goes to landfill. 
However, there is another twist to this scheme as visitors can also donated us any empty ink cartridges for recycling at the Pay Cabin or Discovery Centre when you next pay us a visit. For each ink cartridge we recycle money is donated directly to our charity Friends of Paradise Wildlife Park who work tirelessly to raise funds for worldwide animal conservation efforts.
In addition to ink cartridges, this scheme also allows us to recycle old or unwanted mobile phones, PDAs, MP3 players, digital cameras and Sat Nav devices. Visitors are welcome to bring along any of these devices for recycling by dropping them into the pay cabin or discovery centre when they next visit. We also have freepost bags visitors can take home which can be collected from various sites around the park including; the Pay Cabin, Discovery Centre, Jungle Trading Post, Tumble Jungle, Animal Resource Centre and Safari Sam's Restaurant.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for us to further our recycling credentials whilst raising funds to allow our charity to support worldwide animal conservation"
(Ashley Palmier, Environmental Manager).
Did you know...
- Over 65 million printer cartridges are sold each year in the UK alone.
- If you recycle ink cartridges, you can prevent them ending up in landfill, rubbish dumps and incinerators.
- Each ink cartridge takes 1,000 years to decompose.
Simply Paper
Paper is around us everywhere we look, whether it be in the office, on the street, at the zoo or even whilst travelling on the train! In the UK alone we use a staggering 12.5 million tonnes of paper and card each year , to put this into perspective on average it takes 24 large trees to produce just one tonne of paper (Recycling Guide 2010).
The use of paper creates a whole range of problems for our environment including; Rainforests being cut down damaging whole ecosystems, litter in our towns and cities whilst waste paper is all too often incinerated producing toxins which are released into the air or simply end up in landfill sites.
Here at Paradise Wildlife Park we are increasing our efforts to reduce the amount of waste paper that is produced at the park each year. Our current paper and card recycling scheme for waste cardboard packaging has recently been enhanced to include better internal collection facilities. New waste paper and cardboard recycling bins can now be found in our Discovery Centre, Pay Cabin, Jungle Trading Post, ARC offices and Tumble Jungle. Over the coming year this scheme will be increased to allow visitors an even greater chance to recycle paper and cardboard whilst visiting Paradise.
Paradise Wildlife Park also uses a variety of recycled paper and paper sourced for FSC approved sites where ever possible.
Did you know...
- For over a thousand years, paper has been a fundamental part of everyday life.
- The average person in the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers per year.
- Recycled paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it was made from raw materials.
Shredding Paper
Often office waste paper can contain confidential information, therefore shredding is essential to safe guard private information. Shredded paper can be difficult to recyle so here at the park we re-use our shredded paper for animal bedding which provides an extra cosy bed for our animals to enjoy as well as increasing the life of the paper.
Boxes
We re-use our waste carboard boxes that are not recylced as a form of animal enrichment. Our keepers fill boxes with a variety of different scents and goodies suited to each particular animal to provide extra stimulation.
On your next visit to the Park be sure to keep an eye out for boxes being used in our cat, primate and small mammal enclosures as the animals will certainly be having plenty of fun.
Composting Green Matter
Our gardening team and zoo keepers work closely together to collect any unwanted green matter that we produce. This is then shredded down and left in special compost bins until the completed compost is ready to be used on the Paradise Wildlife Park gardens to help improve soil quality.
You can easily add a compost bin to your garden at any time of the year. Advice on setting up a compost bin in your garden can be obtained from a garden centre or why not ask a member of our gardening team when you visit Paradise.
Did you know...
- Compost and soil are not dead, they are living things.
- There are more micro-organisms in a teaspoonful of soil than there are humans alive on the planet.
- Paradise Wildlife Park uses a wood chipper to dispose of any unwanted tree cuttings. The chippings are then used accross the Park in the flower beds, animal enclosures and the woodland walk footpath.
