Wheelie Bin News Roundup 19th August

Wheelie Bin News Roundup 19^th August

We all like to think we take recycling seriously, but a family from Nuneaton has gone the extra mile and started a recycling plant on their driveway!

The family has put 12 wheelie bins outside of their home where people can take non-recyclable plastic. Since they started last December, they’ve managed to divert a ton of plastic from landfill. At first, they thought that only their family and friends would be interested, but now people are coming from further afield to use their ‘service.’

Items that can be put in the bins include crisp and cracker packets, contact lenses, toothbrushes, and coffee pods. Many of these products are made with a metallised film which makes them difficult to recycle.

Once the items are collected, the family posts them to TerraCycle for processing. They are then turned into plastic pellets which are used to make new items like outdoor furniture, trays, roofing, and flooring.

The family came up with idea of the makeshift recycling plant after their children found a 40-year-old crisp packet in their allotment. They then got to thinking that people eat millions of bags of crisps every year and about how much plastic waste it generates.

So far, they’ve sent 194kg of crisp packets; 113kg of coffee pods; 47kg of personal items like make-up wipes, sunscreen and hair product bottles, and 39kg of snack containers to TerraCycle.

Residents in Eastbourne are set to get a free extra green wheelie bin to encourage them to recycle more of their household waste. The council has launched a new service called Environment First which aims to improve waste and recycling collections. As well as more efficient collections and cleaner streets, the council say that residents can expect better customer support.

As part of the service improvements, the council has invested in more waste and recycling vehicles, more mechanical sweepers, and HGVs with the capacity to collect more waste.

A council spokesperson said it’s hoped that by giving people a free second green bin, it will encourage them to recycle everything that they can to help drive up recycling rates.

Businesses in Taunton town centre are kicking up a stink about bins bags being torn open by hungry seagulls. Residents and businesses have been offered gull-proof bags by Somerset West and Taunton Council, which have a sturdy base to weigh them down, as well as having the capacity to hold about 3-4 black bags of rubbish.

The council action came after a business owner posted pictures on Twitter of bin bags that had apparently been torn open by wildlife. The council promptly arrived to clean up the mess which included food and other waste.

Waste collections in the town are the subject of ongoing discussions, as collections are carried out on Monday mornings, which forces people who live in flats which have no capacity for wheelie bins to keep waste bags inside of their properties all week until late on Sunday evening.

As well as this, some residents don’t use the gull-proof bags and their ordinary black waste bags are readily torn open by gulls and other wildlife.

A spokesperson for the council said it is monitoring the situation and took the opportunity to remind businesses and residents what their obligations are regarding the disposal and storage of waste. He added that the council’s cleansing contractor will continue to deal promptly with any mess created by wildlife or fly-tippers and that the authority is determined to make Taunton town centre clean and welcoming for residents and visitors.