More plastic waste will be kept out of landfill as West Cumbria Rivers Trust in Keswick town centre becomes a collection point for crisp packets and biscuit wrappers.
Many items of food packaging can’t be recycled through standard household collections. West Cumbria Rivers Trust has set up collection bins for crisp packets and biscuit wrappers at its visitor centre at 32 Lake Road.
The waste will be sent to TerraCycle, a leader in the reuse and recycling of hard-to-recycle waste, where it will be shredded and turned into plastic granules which can be used to make a wide range of new plastic products. The Trust will receive a donation from TerraCycle for every kilogram of waste collected.
Jodie Mills, Operations Director at West Cumbria Rivers Trust, said: “Please bring us your rubbish! We work on the rivers and lakes of West Cumbria and see first-hand the amount of plastic waste entering our environment. Single-use plastics, such as food wrappers, are hugely wasteful and we want to see as much recycled and reused as possible. The donations we receive through this scheme will also help us continue our work to improve the natural environment in West Cumbria.”
The crisp packet collection scheme is sponsored by KP Snacks, but all brands are accepted. As well as crisp packets, crisp multipack outer bags, popcorn bags, nut packets and pretzel bags can also be recycled.
The biscuit wrapper collection scheme is sponsored by Pladis, owner of McVities, Carrs and Jacobs. Again, waste from all brands is accepted with recyclable items including both sweet and savoury biscuit wrappers and multipack cake wrappers.
The West Cumbria Rivers Trust visitor centre is located at 32 Lake Road, Keswick and is open from 10am to 4pm, Monday to Friday.
