Published on 6th June 2014

Bulky plastic, also known as mixed hard plastics recycling, will be returning to the Swindon Road Recycling Centre from 16 June.

This means people wishing to recycle items such as plastic toys, plastic garden furniture and plastic buckets etc, will be invited to use the container located on site.

Mixed hard plastics recycling was removed from the site in 2013 as the market for this type of material had become quite volatile, meaning that it would have cost the Council a considerable amount of money to continue recycling it. However, the market for plastic material has now picked up again, and so we will now be able to accept mixed hard plastics at the site once more.

Scott Williams, strategic client officer, joint waste team, said: “Recycling needs to have an end use and re-processors willing to accept it in order for it to be recycled. The market for selling on plastics is not as well developed as the market for paper for example, but having monitored it over the past year, we can now see that the volatility has reduced and re-processors are much keener to accept all types of plastics.

“We were also pleased to be able to launch a trial of ‘mixed plastic’ recycling at 12 of our most popular recycling sites, including Swindon Road, from 2 June. This refers to items such as; yoghurt pots, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs, ready-meal trays, plastic fruit punnets and plastic bottles. The initial trial period is for three months but if affordable, we hope to be able to offer this permanently as we recognize there is a clear public demand for this service.”

Cllr Chris Coleman, cabinet member for sustainability, added: “The recycling market made it very difficult to have mixed hard plastics recycled. However, every tonne of waste which isn’t landfilled saves the taxpayer £80/tonne so we are delighted the market has picked up and we can recycle this material again.”

For more information on Swindon Road Recycling Centre, including opening times, directions and types of recycling please visit the council’s website.

For press enquiries contact: Laura Carter, communications officer, telephone 01242 264154 or email [email protected]