COUNTY environmental charity The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust (DWT) is fund-raising for its projects by recycling ‘unrecyclable’ crisps and snack packets from the community.
Anda Phillips, DWT volunteer and community co-ordinator has signed up to the KP Snacks, Nuts, Popcorn, Crisps and Pretzels Packet Free Recycling Programme – a partnership between KP Snacks and TerraCycle, the world leaders in recycling hard-to-recycle waste.
Anda has set up a publicly accessible drop-off location for the community to leave items including crisps packets, nuts packaging, pretzel bags and other snack packets. These are not included in council recycling collections and have traditionally been destined for landfill, incineration or the natural environment.
For each item collected to be recycled, TerraCycle points are earned which are redeemed as monetary donations to The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust. The Trust uses the funds to protect and enhance the natural and built environments of Worcestershire, as well as encouraging the community to waste less by reusing and recycling more.
The charity is encouraging residents to make use of the drop-off location at Pump House Environment Centre on Waterworks Road to ensure more is recycled and to help boost fund-raising efforts. The drop-off location is accessible between 10am and 4pm, seven days a week.
Anda said: “The Duckworth Worcestershire Trust was set up with the goal to protect and promote Worcestershire’s environment, and a key part of our work is encouraging the community to rethink waste, reuse and recycle more.
“Setting a public drop-off location with TerraCycle meant we could become a hub to recycle snack packaging that would otherwise go to landfill or end up in the environment.
“We’d encourage the whole community to drop their crisps and snack packets off with us so we can ensure they are recycled and raise funds for The DWT in the process. We know the Worcestershire environment means a lot to its residents, and this is one simple thing anyone can do to help protect it.”
The waste is sent to TerraCycle and is recycled by shredding, cleaning and turning into plastic pellets which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products such as outdoor equipment – reducing the need to extract new resources from the planet.
