Following footage of the irresponsible disposal of plastic recycling that appeared on the BBC’s War on Plastics programme on Monday, Copeland Council has confirmed that 100 per cent of the recyclable plastic they collect at the doorstep and at recycling sites is processed in the UK.
A Copeland Council spokesman said: “All the recycling we collect is sent to Cumbria Waste Management, where any non-recyclable items that have been included in error are removed. Additionally, if our Waste Operatives identify non-recyclable items that have been left at the kerbside, they will not be collected.
“Cumbria Waste Management then sends all the plastic recycling to a well-respected firm in Northampton, which converts the plastic into pellets and granules for re-sale and re-use.”
Copeland Council began collecting five items – including plastic – at residents’ kerbsides in April 2018. The amount of recycling has more than doubled as a result, to 3,354 tonnes in 2018/19 compared to 1,589 the previous year; a 53 per cent increase.
The figure for 2018/19 includes almost 550 tonnes of plastic.
