More items to be recycled

3:52pm Monday 14th July 2008

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PEOPLE in Wiltshire are now able to recycle their Tetra Pak cartons for the first time.

Wiltshire County Council, in conjunction with Hills Waste Solutions, Tetra Pak Ltd and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment), has started a new beverage carton recycling scheme this month.

People will be able to take their cartons, washed and squashed, to any of the ten household recycling centres (HRCs) in the county along with the two dozen other items they can already recycle there.

Every year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce approximately 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk and juices, and increasingly even chopped tomatoes and wine.

In response, Wiltshire County Council is working with the carton industry and has set up carton collection points at the HRCs for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.

The new project means that used cartons can now be recycled through special collection bins (taking paper-based cartons only) at each of the HRCs. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

Andy Conn, waste services manager at Wiltshire County Council, said: "People in Wiltshire are always looking at how they can recycle more and I'm delighted that we can give them these new facilities.

"We looked at how we could introduce a service that would be effective and also financially viable and it was clear that using our household recycling centres was the best answer.

"On top of our expanded kerbside recycling scheme, our longer opening hours at the recycling centres and the promotion of food waste digesters it's another example of how the county council is working with residents to recycle more."

The new service will be monitored to check that bins are emptied often enough and the right cartons are being left there.

The cartons will be taken to a regional hub until there is enough for them to go the paper mill for pulping.

For more information on recycling in Wiltshire visit www.recycleforwiltshire.com.