New colour-coded recycling bins have gone out around the site to encourage visitors to help separate out waste and allow the zoo to become even greener.

The Castle Hill attraction already avoids 86 per cent of waste going to landfill through recycling – even animal waste is composted down into fertilizer – but bosses want to do more.

So far five recycling stations, each containing a green bin for general waste, a red bin for plastic bottles and a blue bin for cans, have been installed and there are other single bins dotted around the 40-acre site. Within the first week of the bins being wheeled out, Head Gardener Carl Stevens said they were proving popular with visitors who have already started recycling right.

Colourful signage above the recycling stations has been designed by in-house graphic designer, Rachel Lane, and features fun messages to appeal to younger visitors, including a sign on the bins by the Reptile House asks people to ‘make landfill hisss-story’. Conservation Officer Chris Leeson said:

“We are 86 per cent landfill avoidance on site and are always striving to improve on this. Our gardening team already recycles what they can from our bins and we send all litter to a waste management company which sorts it.

"By encouraging visitors to separate out the waste, we can hopefully reduce what goes to landfill even further."