Swansea’s kerbside plastics recycling campaign has been so successful that the Council is collecting the weight of two London buses of the stuff every week.
Thousands of families across Swansea are getting into the recycling habit thanks to the new pink plastics kerbside collection service.
More than 1.3million pink bags have been delivered to homes across the city over the last few months.
And while it’s led to a big jump in the amount of plastics collected for recycling there’s also evidence of an increase in other recyclable materials too.
Trish Flint, Swansea Council’s Recycling Officer, said: “The plastics recycling campaign has been a big success. Our teams have been picking up 14 tonnes of plastics every week- the equivalent in weight of two of the famous London buses.
“We’ve found that not only are people joining in by recycling their plastics in the pink bags but it seems families are also recycling more kitchen waste, paper, bottles, cans and other recyclables too.
“There’s no doubt people are really excited about reycling plastics.
“You just need to visit a street on pink bag collection day and see all the bags that have been put out for kerbside collection to see that. It’s fantastic.”
Trish added: “Families should remember that when they’re recycling plastics they should wash them and squash them so they can fit as much as possible in each pink sack.”
She said apart from the pink bags, more than a million liners for kitchen waste caddies have also been delivered to homes in Swansea as part of the Council’s efforts to encourage households to recycle more.
And on top of that people can put out clean, used aluminium foil with their cans as well as folded and bundled cardboard boxes on the green bag collection weeks.
At the moment, residents in the city have helped push the recycling percentage to 34.5% in 2009/10. But the Council needs more residents to participate in the scheme if it’s to avoid heavy fines for exceeding landfill allowances.
Find out when you can recycle at www.swansea.gov.uk/recycling or call 01792 635600.
