St Helens residents are now able to recycle even more plastics, thanks to an agreement between St Helens Council and waste management company Biffa.
The ground-breaking agreement, which began on 25 January, means St Helens is leading the way in Merseyside in recycling more plastic than ever before.
The pink bag collection will now include common plastic items like yoghurt pots, butter and margarine tubs and plastic food trays.
With the deadline to recycle more than 50 per cent of household waste less than a year away, the council has been working on extending the current service to meet residents’ requests for more plastic recycling.
Biffa and the council have worked together closely since the council adopted the current kerbside recycling service in 2013.
Since that time a total of 72,280 tonnes of recycling have been handled, including 4,824 tonnes of plastic bottles.
Councillor Lynn Clarke, Cabinet member for Better Neighbourhoods said: “We are delighted to launch this new plastic recycling initiative. Residents have told us that they want to recycle more plastics, to be more environmentally friendly and to avoid waste going to landfill. We can now announce that we are able to collect more plastic items for recycling, which hopefully will help every household in the borough to recycle more.”
Council Leader Derek Long, said: “Recycling more plastics and spending less taxpayers’ money on landfill costs is a great way to launch the 2019 Year of Environment. Watch out for more initiatives coming up. I am delighted that we are able to work with Biffa to launch this new service. Hopefully, this will help even more residents increase their recycling.
“We have all seen the recent news and television programmes showing plastic waste in the oceans harming wildlife – in widening the types of plastics we collect for recycling we are demonstrating our commitment to doing better for the environment.”
Nick Rushton, regional general manager for Biffa said: “We are delighted to continue to work with and support St Helens Council to improve their recycling rates by accepting more types of plastics for recycling. The recyclable material delivered to us by the council is processed to make new materials, most of which takes place at our Biffa’s Polymers plant, the UK’s biggest plastics re-processing plant. We continue to work to encourage all businesses and households to recycle as much as possible, to divert waste from landfill and promote a better environment for all.”
