THOUSANDS of racecourse visitors have been praised by ground bosses in their attempt to lower its carbon footprint on race days.

A recent partnership between Ripon Racecourse in North Yorkshire and Yorwaste, has been hailed a "success" following the roll-out of recycling bins at the site.

Carl Tonks, head groundsman at Ripon Racecourse, said: “We get thousands of people at our race meetings, so it’s fantastic to see our visitors being so diligent when disposing of their waste.

“We are always striving to lower our carbon footprint and recycling more waste and recovering the rest is just one of the ways we are doing this.”

For the first time, the colour-coded waste and recycling bins have been added to the grounds in a bid to improve wastage when the site is at its busiest.

Matthew Pearson, head of commercial operations at Yorwaste, said: “We have a long-standing relationship with Ripon Races and working in partnership, we have been looking at ways to make it easier for people to recycle their waste on race days.

“Any waste which is not recyclable is taken to Allerton Waste Recovery Park near Ripon, where it is converted into electricity which is fed back into the National Grid.

“This means that none of the waste generated at the racecourse is sent to landfill, demonstrating Ripon Races and Yorwaste’s commitment to finding environmentally friendly waste solutions.”