Heineken aces recycling program at New Zealand Festival of Tennis

Spectators at this year’s New Zealand Festival of Tennis, comprising the ASB Classic and Heineken Open, were actively encouraged to recycle their glass bottles and other drinks containers.

Heineken said it was pleased to work with Tennis Auckland, the Glass Packaging Forum and Love NZ to reduce the sporting event’s environmental footprint, with the recycling of 14.5 tonnes of mixed recyclables, 7.9 tonnes of glass bottles and 3.8 tonnes of cardboard.

“There is definitely a shift in the way we activate our sponsorships as we look to instil a green initiative within all of our events,” said Heineken New Zealand Marketing Manager Jennie Macindoe. “This year we ran a collaborative effort … to ensure there was a recycling program in place to help lessen the environmental impact of the New Zealand Festival of Tennis.”

Love NZ Project Manager Lyn Mayes explained, “Love NZ and the Glass Packaging Forum worked closely with Heineken to forge a plan to drive recycling at the tennis and wanted to reiterate the recycle message to fans across the two weeks. It was great to see the results, with a massive 26 tonnes recycled achieving a 57% recycling rate across both tennis tournaments.”

Heineken ran a video message on the big screen between matches each day, encouraging spectators to put their drink bottles in the right recycling bin. The video can be viewed below.