Participating households have received special blue bags to put all their plastic bags and wrapping in, including crisp packets, confectionery wrappers, plastic film, bubble wrap and foil lined packaging (not pet food pouches). They also received full details of the scheme, including exactly what can and can’t be collected, and how bags should be presented on their usual collection day – with a secure double knot and placed in their (blue lidded) recycling bin, on top of other materials.
Cllr Tim Hoskin, Executive Member for Environmental Sustainability, said: “We are so pleased to be joining North Herts in this trial. Although plastic bags and wrapping don’t weigh that much, early results from participants in Knebworth demonstrate that they can take up lots of space in people’s bins and being able to recycle this material is great news for the residents of Sawbridgeworth”
East and North Herts Councils were chosen to take part in this fully-funded pilot and expansion trial, to test the collection of plastic bags and wrapping as part of our current fortnightly recycling collections. Plastic bags and wrapping are a considerable challenge as they represented 22% of all UK consumer plastic packaging in 2020, but only 8% was recycled. At present, the only way to recycle plastic bags and wrapping is at supermarket collection points.
The trial is part of a larger £2.9m Flexible Plastic Fund (FPF) ‘FlexCollect’ project, which involves the charity WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and nine local authorities across England, and aims to inform government and industry on how plastic bags and wrapping should be added to existing household collection services. Most of the £2.9m fund is provided by the FPF, the government Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and UK Research and the Innovation Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging Challenge Fund.
Participating residents are encouraged to not put plastic bags and wrapping loose in their recycling (blue) bin – this will be classed as contamination and the bin will not be emptied. There are special blue collection bags for those on the trial. Residents not participating in the trial can take their flexible/soft plastics to a local supermarket collection point to be recycled.
For further information, please click the following link:
Plastic Bags and Wrapping Recycling Local Collections | Recycle Now
