Fantastic – let’s recycle more plastic

Across the UK, householders use around 1.5 million tonnes of rigid plastic packaging every year, around half of which is made up of pots, tubs and trays from food packaging.  Most of this material ends up in landfill.

Residents of Shropshire will soon be able to recycle a wider range of plastic in their recycling boxes.  Shropshire Council, in partnership with their waste services contractor Veolia Environmental Services, is now able to increase the types of household plastic food packaging which can be recycled at the kerbside.  To date only plastic bottles could be collected for recycling but from next week (Monday 24 September 2012) residents across the whole county will be able to add plastic pots, tubs and trays to their recycling boxes along with their plastic bottles, tins and cans.

Every household will receive a leaflet which explains what they need to do and what types of plastics they can include in their recycling collection.  However, there are still many plastic items that cannot be accepted and these include all types of black plastic, all types of plastic bags, wrappers and films and all other non-packaging plastic items such as toys, washing-up bowls, buckets etc.

Through the current recycling service, which collects paper, glass, cans and plastic bottles from every household, Shropshire’s residents are already doing well and recycling more than half of the county’s household rubbish.

Keith Barrow, Leader of Shropshire Council, said:

“This is a fantastic new service which won’t cost Shropshire residents any more on their council tax bill.  It’s really important that we continue to invest in things like this to help protect our environment, support British industry and lessen the burden of landfill tax, which is just going to rise and rise in the coming years.  This in turn will help us to continue to invest in our frontline services.”

Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for waste management, said:

“I am delighted that we have been able to help residents to recycle more plastic packaging because this is something they have been asking us for a long time.  We want to help residents recycle as much as possible and this new service will help ensure even less rubbish gets sent to landfill in Shropshire.”

Donald Macphail, Managing Director of Veolia in Shropshire, added:

“We simply ask residents to wash and squash their plastic bottles, tubs, pots and trays, then add them to their recycling box along with their cans, tins, aerosols and tin foil.  We’ll do the rest.  All the recycling is collected by Veolia and then taken to our Materials Recycling Facility near Wolverhampton to be separated prior to transport to UK reprocessors.”

For more information on recycling in Shropshire visit www.recycleforshropshire.com. 

Further information

Dates for plastic promotions/roadshows are as follows:

• Friday 21 September – Bridgnorth: Market
• Tuesday 25 September – Wem: The Midcounties Co-operative
• Thursday 27 September – Sainsbury’s, Meole Brace, Shrewsbury

Roadshows have already taken place in Ludlow, Much Wenlock and Oswestry.  However, more are being planned for week commencing Monday 8 October 2012.

The following items can be recycled as part of the recycling collection service:

Yes please:

• All clear household plastic bottles, pots, tubs, and trays used as packaging for food and drinks
• Plastic bottles of all types
• Yoghurt pots
• Margarine tubs
• Ice cream tubs
• Plastic trays from chocolate and biscuit boxes
• Trays from meat and fish
• Fruit and vegetable punnets
• All bottle tops, lids and triggers
• Cream and custard pots
• Soup pots
• Instant Noodle pots
• Tubs for dishwasher and laundry tablets.

No thanks:

• Hard plastic items eg toys, washing-up bowls, tupperware lunchboxes etc
• Black plastic
• Plastic film or wrappers
• Plastic bags or black sacks
• Expanded polystyrene
• Food waste / general rubbish.