Rugby Borough Council is introducing an additional recycling service for the collection of plastic bags and wrapping, collected fortnightly with other dry recycling in the blue-lidded recycling bin. The new scheme comes into place ten months ahead of a deadline for collection of flexible plastics set by the government’s Simpler Recycling programme.
Plastics such as plastic bags, confectionary wrappers, foil lined packaging, plastic film, bubble wrap, food wrapping, fruit and vegetable net bags and more can now be placed in the blue-lidded recycling bin for fortnightly collection. The plastic must be empty and clean, free from food residue and other contaminants.
The scheme will help boost further Rugby Borough Council's improving recycling rate, which was the tenth most improved in the country in the most recent reporting year.
Plastic bags and wrapping represent approximately 22 per cent of all UK consumer plastic packaging but only around 8 per cent is recycled. Until now, the only way to recycle plastic bags and wrapping was at supermarket front-of-store collection points.
Cllr Alison Livesey, Rugby Borough Council portfolio holder for Operations and Traded Services, said: “Plastic bags and wrapping continues to be a large part of the way in which food and other products are packaged, so it’s great for our residents to be able to recycle these at the kerbside.
“Our partnership with and investment in Sherbourne Recycling - the materials recycling facility in Coventry where our recycling is sorted - allows us to make improvements for our residents, and we’re very grateful to the team there enabling this new recycling scheme to happen.”
Cllr Sam Edwards, Liberal Democrat Group spokesperson for Operations and Traded Services, said: "This is the right direction towards a circular economy.
"The investment made by the council supports our move towards less waste going to landfill, and partnership working such as this helps us to achieve our goal of producing less waste."
For more information on recycling flexible plastics see www.rugby.gov.uk/whichbin or check the RBC app, downloadable from www.rugby.gov.uk/app.