THE Eco-Team at Manning Road Methodist Church, located in Glenwood, has collected 100 000 glass bottles over a period of 28 and a half months in an effort to encourage church members and local residents to collect recyclable materials and make the area a more eco-conscious neighbourhood. Richard Neville from the Manning Road Methodist Church Eco-Team says the initiative began in October of 2020.
“At the beginning of October of 2020, we started collecting glass bottles and putting them into a recycling bank, and we encouraged local residents and church members to bring their glass bottles for us to collect in the recycling banks we have at the church.”
Neville said that the initiative progressed quickly, and by December 21, they had collected 6 555 glass bottles. “From October 1, 2020, to December 21, we had collected 6 555 glass bottles, which we gave to a local glass-recycling factory. Then, from January 21 in 2021 to the end of December in 2021, we were able to collect 42 000 glass bottles, which we also took out of the recycling banks and gave to the glass-recycling factory.”
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Fast-forward to the beginning of this year – the Manning Road Methodist Church Eco-Team had collected 96 086 bottles and were determined to reach their goal of 100 000 bottles collected. “At the beginning of this year, we needed 7 914 bottles to reach our goal, and we accomplished this goal in a matter of 44 days,” said Neville.
Neville says that he and fellow Eco-Team member Brenda Rowsell are the main contributors to the recycling project; they collect bottles from Bulwer Park and Blue Lagoon and receive bottles from church members.
“We have become known as one of the places in Glenwood that collect bottles, and that is the main reason why we have achieved this great total,” said Neville.
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The Manning Road Methodist Church Eco-Team has also started collecting paper and recyclable items and has both paper and plastic recycling banks at the church. “We have started collecting paper and plastic items since last year, and we have taken 120kg of plastic out of the system, which possibly prevented some plastic from ending up in the ocean.”
“Some plastic and glass items cannot be recycled, so we have used these items to make a barrier at the sandbanks for when it rains – this also keeps unrecyclable material out of the landfill,” said Neville.
Neville and Rowsell say their next target is to collect 150 000 glass bottles and encourage residents to bring any recyclable materials to them at Manning Road Methodist Church, located on the corner of Manning Road and Moore Road in Glenwood.
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