As many of you will know we carried out an incredilbly well supported waste household plastics collection trial in September. We have now collated all the information we learned from the event and our report, put together by Anne Tucker who organised it, follows. Many people have been asking us when we will be doing it again. Reading the report below will, we hope, answer many of your questions. 

If, having read the report, you would like to help with future collections or any of the other activities carried out by the Waste Action Group, please contact us. Without your support the amount we can do is limited. The more people who help out the more good work like this that can be achieved.

Report on the Plastics Recycling Trial

Aims:

• To promote recycling
• To encourage more people to recycle plastic
• To inform/educate more people about the local recycling centres - Punchbowl (Crediton) and Ashleigh (Tiverton) and that they accept plastics
• To ascertain level of support of recycling plastic
• To see how much plastic is collected
• To answer or field queries

WHAT?

A collection of household waste plastic was held on 2 Saturdays - 3rd and 17th September 2011 between 10am and 1 pm. Only plastic accepted at the DCC recycling centres was collected. All plastic had to be clean and bottle tops removed or loosened. All plastic milk bottles collected were separated out and went into the MDDC kerbside recycling. 

WHO?

The Waste Action Group from Sustainable Crediton organised the whole event, which was financed from a grant provided by the former Mid Devon Community Recycling. 

HOW?

The waste plastic was checked over and sorted into large dumpy bags. A survey was carried out to collate some data on plastic recycling. 

RESULTS

35 dumpy bags were collected on the 3rd and 40 bags on the 17th - amounting to over 1 tonne of plastic in total. We carried out a survey of the people who came along with Plastic to recycle 

SURVEY RESULTS

On 3rd Sep 219 people were questioned - estimated total no of people attending = 400

On 17th Sep 206 people were questioned - estimated total no of people attending = 350

Hence an estimated total of 750 people turned up, with around 200 people visiting on both dates so there were around 550 unique visits. Most people represented at least one household, some more.

With around 3500 households in Crediton this represents more than 15% of households visiting - in just 6 hours!

On the 17th the survey was slightly modified to ensure no one was questioned twice.

We asked:

• Do you normally recycle your plastic? : 68% said "no", 32% said "yes" i.e. 2/3 would not normally recycle plastic.
• If yes, where is it recycled? : As might be expected the majority (60%) go to the Punchbowl, 17% go to Ashleigh and the rest (25%) elsewhere with London, Plymouth, Cornwall, Bournemouth and Exeter being cited (when visiting family/friends). Several took plastic to other towns where they know it is recycled.
• Do you know the Punchbowl will accept plastics?: 40% said "yes" but the majority (60%) said "no". However a number of people said "yes" but did not recycle their plastic - see below.

REASONS WHY PEOPLE DO NOT CURRENTLY RECYCLE PLASTIC at a DCC site

• Attitude of staff at the Punchbowl - unpleasant, not helpful, rude, plastic that should have been accepted has been refused
• Too far to drive, No transport, Only if going - don't make a special trip, Never go that way

COMMENTS

Many people commented that plastic makes up the bulk of their current landfill - recycling the plastic reduced the amount by 2/3 or more.

The amount of plastic collected was "unbelievable", "overwhelming". 

A large number of people asked if the recycling could be done on a regular basis.

Many thanks were received by people who were appreciative that they could recycle what normally went to landfill.

A large majority of people were very co-operative in bringing clean plastics as requested.

It is evident that supermarkets are the source of the majority of the waste plastic we collected.

All the leaflets with details of the DCC recycling centres and a printout of the plastics collected were given out.

CONCLUSIONS

The trial demonstrates a high degree of willingness to recycle.

There is a general lack of awareness about the DCC centres recycling plastics.

Many people are reticent or unable to travel to the Punchbowl.

A town location to collect plastic recycling is more accessible to more people than the DCC recycling centres. If plastic recycling could be available in the town it would encourage more people to do it.

It is clear that a future recycling scheme of plastics will be supported and welcomed by the people of Crediton.

After the trial, a number of Morrisons' customers have asked if there will be another recycling event.

WHAT NEXT?

• Work with DCC to improve the awareness of the facility and approachability of the staff at the Punchbowl.
• Present results to MDDC to discuss a way forward.
• Future plastic collections - how can Morrisons help - what support can they provide? Can we organise a group of volunteers to supervise further collections?
• Discussion with Morrisons - how can they reduce packaging?
• Provide an education leaflet on reducing waste.
• From a practical point of view any future collections may have to be on a weekday as recycling staff do not normally work on Saturdays.
• Educational video on plastic recycling.