The Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) has helped students turn their collections of glass bottles into cash with its second Bottle Buy Back of the year.
The organiser of the event, OUSA finance officer Nina Harrap, said students were given 10 cents for each glass bottle and about 11,000 bottles were collected.
''It went really well, we're very pleased with the outcome overall. We didn't quite collect as many as we hoped for but it was still a good outcome.
''We think it's important for students to think about the way that their actions affect the environment or put a bit of focus back on protecting the environment, and obviously recycling is a big part of that,'' Miss Harrap said.
The Bottle Buy Back gave students an incentive to recycle and an opportunity to get rid of bottles that did not fit in their own recycling bins, she said.
''We find that a lot of flats have six or seven students and only one recycling bin, which only gets emptied every two weeks, and it doesn't really have the capacity for all the bottles they use.''
OUSA held the Bottle Buy Back the week after Re-orientation as that was when a lot of students were drinking more and using a lot of glass bottles.
''The students love it. Last time we ran it, I was inundated with people asking when the next one would be. Members of the public were also very pleased. I had people come up to me on Friday and say what a great job we were doing. It's definitely a crowd-pleaser.''
Miss Harrap was hoping to hold another Bottle Buy Back at the end of the semester.
- by David Beck
