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Islanders have embraced a new environmental initiative by The Royal British Legion and The Co-operative Society, with thousands of paper poppies to be recycled following the 2018 Jersey Poppy Appeal.
In a first for the Channel Isands, the poppies were collected at The Co-operative Society’s various Island-wide stores for a number of weeks following Remembrance Sunday last year.
The supermarket is the only place to offer poppy recycling in both Jersey and Guernsey, which will help The Royal British Legion keep vital funds by reusing or recycling the donated poppies.
The poppies are environmentally friendly with all of the parts either biodegradable or able to be recycled. They will now join a national recycling scheme that sees the poppies broken down into their component parts and either recycled or repurposed into new poppies for next year’s appeal.
This will help to raise further funds for The Royal British Legion, whose Jersey branch raised a staggering £195,000 last year, as the Island remembered the 100-year centenary of the end of the First World War.
The money raised will be used to provide financial, social and emotional support to local veterans, servicemen/women and their families.
Carl Winn, Head of Marketing, Channel Islands Co-operative Society, said:
“We were delighted to work with and support The Royal British Legion on collecting the thousands of poppies from last year's appeal to be reused or recycled. At the Society, one of our aims is to reduce the use of single-use plastic to benefit the environment in the communities we call home. As a community retailer, we're proud to part of the initiative which we hope will provide much-needed support to the deserving local veterans, servicemen and women, and their families.”
Al Brown, Royal British Legion, Jersey branch, spokesperson said:
“The remembrance poppy was inspired by the World War I poem ‘In Flanders Fields’. Its opening lines refer to the poppies that were the first flowers to grow in the churned-up earth of the graves in Flanders. The initiative of the Channel Islands Co-operative Society to work with the Royal British Legion in order to ensure the poppies from this, and every successive year are recycled was an inspired one. No one wants to see the amazing marque that the poppy represents being classed as a littering issue. Today, we are often guilty of living on this planet as if we had another one to go to, we must all ensure that we do everything we can to reuse and recycle so for this initiative we thank our Co-operative society partners.”
Tim Daniels, Chairman of the Royal British Legion, Jersey branch, added:
“This is the first year we’ve provided a recycling initiative for the poppies and we are delighted with the take-up by Islanders who really have embraced the annual Poppy Appeal and The Royal British Legion. Money raised from both the appeal and recycling will be used locallyin providing the financial, social and emotional care and support veterans, armed forces personel and their families may need.”
