The second waste plastic collection of 2013 run by the Waste Group took place on Sat March 9th. A rare mild spell on the day blessed the volunteers, and despite rather threatening weather, the rain held off until near the end. 

The dumpy bags in which the plastic is collected were late turning up, so a huge pile of overflowing plastic bags accumulated at the start and we were very relieved to see the Peninsular Waste Services van arrive at 11am with dumpy bags on board, ready to load up and take it all away!

As an experiment, a subsidiary collection had been held in Cheriton Fitzpaine for a week prior to the event and the 4 dumpy bags of plastic collected from the village were brought along by village resident Terry Hadley piled high in his trusty truck and added to the total.

The amount of plastic collected at each of these events remains pretty consistent at about half to three quarters of a tonne (or more than a double decker bus full!!) and regular contributors tell us that more and more people are now taking their plastic to Punchbowl and Ashleigh recycling centres as well between events. This is really excellent news and was in fact one of the aims of starting up these collections - we wanted to make people more aware of how much waste plastic they create and encourage the habit of recycling it.

Further plastic collections will now be held at Peck and Strong, Lord's Meadow on the following Saturdays during 2013: May 4th, July 6th, Sept 7th, Nov 2nd and Jan 11th 2014. 

If anyone who lives in a village in the Crediton area would like to know how to set up a collection, similar to the one held in Cheriton Fitzpaine described above to coincide with these dates, please contact Paula Mossman on 01363 866106.