As part of a countrywide recycling campaign organized by WWF, IKEA and Hydro, first to fourth grade school students across Norway have collected 11 million utilized tea light cups made of aluminum.
The Tea Light Hunt was popular at Sande School in Sunndal, Norway.
The campaign began in October 2011 and ended on March 31, 2012. Over 23,000 students from 1,212 classes participated in the campaign. Nina Jensen, who is the Secretary General at WWF in Norway, exclaimed that the intensity of enthusiasm for this environmental cause among the students has been really amazing.
The group, which collects the more number of aluminum light cups, will win a class tour to Hydro’s aluminum facility located in Holmestrand to understand more about the recycling process. There, the group will get a chance to meet Svein Richard Brandtzæg, the President and Chief Executive Officer at Hydro.
Brandtzæg expressed his happiness on the enthusiastic participation of the students in the aluminum recycling campaign. Aluminum retains its qualities of formability, light weight and strength even after being recycled several times. According to an estimate, 75% of all aluminum ever manufactured has been in use until now. Moreover, energy required for manufacturing aluminum from recycled metal is merely 5% of the energy utilized for producing virgin aluminum.
Jensen stated that the Tea Light campaign demonstrated a way of reducing the emissions of carbon dioxide through recycling and the way of reusing resources. The campaign also educated people about natural resources and the environment and highlighted the worth of aluminum as a recyclable material. Tea lights sold per year in Norway are nearly 200 million. If seven out of ten cups settle in the bin, nearly 140 million aluminum cups may remain as waste.