At Blijdorp, we handle waste sustainably. For many years, Blijdorp Zoo has been committed to sustainable operations. After all, caring for nature is inherently linked to the environment. Among other things, we handle the waste we produce sustainably. For instance, behind the scenes, we separate our waste at our environmental park and we have our own composting machine. But as a visitor, you can also contribute by, for example, returning your cans or plastic bottles.
In Blijdorp, behind the scenes, we have an environmental park where we separate our waste. Here, you can find our manure pile and composting machine, among other things. In the composting machine, we process swill into compost. Swill consists of leftover food waste, which we separate from the rest of the waste. In about 24 hours, the composting machine turns it into compost, and from every 10 kilos of swill, about 1.5 kilos of compost remains. This compost, along with the compost that results from processing organic waste, is taken away and used for farming and agriculture.
In Blijdorp, you can deposit both cans and PET bottles in the designated machines. The deposit process uses two separate bins. Thanks to this separate collection, the cans and PET bottles can be recycled into new bottles and cans.
By depositing your empty PET bottles and cans, you also support a good cause: the sea turtle project on Sint Eustatius. Sea turtles are globally threatened by plastic waste in the oceans. The project on Sint Eustatius therefore conducts research on sea turtles by equipping them with special transmitters that allow the animals to be tracked. These transmitters are (partly) funded by Blijdorp.
In Blijdorp, besides depositing your PET bottles and cans, you can also drop off old phones. This way, raw materials can be recycled, preventing the habitat of the western gorillas from being sacrificed for mining them. Would you like to know more?
Apart from our sustainable approach to waste, we also aim to illustrate the consequences of not doing so. A case in point is the plastic soup, an issue that's growing increasingly dire. To raise awareness for this problem, we've launched an exhibit in Blijdorp titled 'ZOO much plastic,' located in the Oceanium.