BLENHEIM Palace is backing a worldwide commitment to significantly reduce the amount of waste ending up as landfill.

Running from the all this week, ‘Zero Waste Week’ is an annual awareness campaign for reducing landfill globally.

As part of the West Oxfordshire UNESCO World Heritage Site’s support for the campaign, staff have made a series of pledges online to further reduce their levels of waste.

These include an estate-wide cardboard recycling campaign incorporating the installation of a large compactor, as well as dedicated Recycling Operative and staff training to encourage sustainable behaviour across the estate.

During last year’s Zero Waste Week, Blenheim introduced waste segregation across all its offices and operations with items separated for recycling into different branded bins.

This, along with the adoption of a new way of managing, segregating and storing waste on the estate, has led to a 50 per cent increase on recycling rates in a year.

Blenheim’s sustainability advisor, Jacqueline Gibson, said: “We have begun to view our waste as a resource, and aim to send as much as possible back into the manufacturing process.

“This is often referred to as the circular economy, where we not only reap financial savings, but reduce the amount of virgin material needed to produce goods and products.

“With everybody at Blenheim on board, we have been able to reassess our activities in a bid to significantly reduce our carbon footprint, production of waste, and reliance on depleting natural resources."

She added that in July, 99 per cent of waste was successfully diverted from landfill after leaving the estate, which is the highest percentage to date.

That result comes after the target made in March this year.

In May this year, Blenheim was assessed against 10 sustainability themes as part of the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

Last week it received a GOLD Green Tourism Award with a top score of 88 per cent.

The accolade puts Blenheim Palace in the top two per cent of ‘Green Tourism’ businesses worldwide.

Blenheim has also installed 10 electric vehicle chargers, introduced a new 'Twizy EV driving experience' and now offers discount to visitors travelling to the estate via sustainable public transport.