Shropshire's recycling moves on

Veolia collected 600 tonnes of plastic bottles in Shropshire last year

Shropshire Council is moving a step closer to reducing the amount of household waste which goes to landfill.

From 15 September those in Whittington, near Oswestry, will be able to put plastic bottles for collection.

Veolia Environmental Services is responsible for the pilot scheme, and it is hoped the whole county will have kerbside plastic bottle collection by March 2011.

Leaflets, detailing the new service, are being delivered to households.

On average kerbside recycling outperforms 'bring' schemes four to one

Shropshire produces about 150,000 tonnes of waste every year. That's more than one tonne for each household. Most of it goes into landfill sites but these are filling up fast.

Nearly 48% of all residential waste is now recycled or composted and there are roadside collection boxes for paper, cans, glass and garden waste in most areas of the county.

Catherine Slayter from Veolia said Whittington had been chosen for the plastic bottle trial because the village had a good recycling record and was small enough for the collection to be made by one crew.

Kerbside systems outperform 'bring' schemes by four to one. Paul Davidson, plastics technology manager at WRAP

Only plastic bottles can be recycled at present, such as milk containers, soft drink bottles, shampoo bottles and washing-up liquid bottles.

Ms Slayter said: "Things like margarine tubs and yoghurt pots don't reprocess very well.

"The drink bottles can be made into heavy duty plastic. Things like water butts, garden furniture and drainpipes."

Residents are being asked to rinse out and squash their bottles, so that they can get as many as possible into their box.

Recycling targets

The trial, which will run alongside the village's existing recycling collection, will last until February 2010 when the rest of the Oswestry area will receive the same service.

Bottles are more easily recycled than many other forms of plastic

Plastic bottle collections will be introduced in the former North Shropshire, Shrewsbury and Atcham and South Shropshire council areas in 2010. Bridgnorth will follow suit in 2011.

Councillor David Roberts said: "This new service will help us meet our target to recycle more than 50% of household waste by 2012."

Ms Slaytor said 600 tonnes of plastic bottles were collected by Veolia for Shropshire Council last year. It is hoped even more will be recycled once the kerbside collections begin.

The government-backed Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) is encouraging people to recycle as much as possible and reduce their carbon footprint.

WRAP plastics technology manager Paul Davidson is all for the new initiative: "Kerbside systems on average outperform 'bring' schemes by four to one."

Veolia has been managing Shropshire's waste since 2007 and hopes to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill to just 5% of the total collected by 2015.

The company has also pledged to extend food waste collection county-wide by 2012.