Sustainable Crediton now have 3 plastic collections operating in Mid Devon.  As well as the main collection at Crediton we now have secondary sites in the villages of Cheriton Fitzpaine and Sandford. The site in Cheriton Fitzpaine has now been running for 10 months and has increased from an initial 3 dumpy bags collected last March to 13 dumpy bags this January. Sandford, which started up as a new collection this month at the Parish Hall car park achieved 6 dumpy bags in its first month - a great result.

January was in fact a bumper month overall, with 67 dumpy bags of waste plastic being collected over the three sites. This was the most ever achieved and represents more than a tonne of plastic waste saved from landfill. After each collection the plastic is taken to Peninsular Waste Services in North Tawton where it is sorted and sent on to recycling facilities to be remade into useful items such as plant pots, garden furniture and traffic cones.

Charles Mossman, who runs the Cheriton Fitzpaine collection, said 'Facilities for recycling plastic are improving in the UK all the time. As of our March 2014 collection dates we can now accept bubble wrap as well as all our usual items. However we would always prefer that items are reused more than once when possible before they are recycled. So if you have unwanted bubble wrap sitting at home, please consider offering it to charity shops where it can be used for wrapping fragile items. We can always accept it for recycling later, once it is past its useful life.

The next plastic collection in Sandford and Cheriton Fitzpaine will take place from 24th to 29th March with a collection at Peck and Strong in Lords Meadow Crediton on Saturday 29th March from 10am to 12.30pm.

If you live in one of the other villages around Crediton and would like to know how to start up a collection where you live, contact Sustainable Crediton's Waste Action Group.