Reducing crisp packet landfill via county-wide community drop-offs
A scheme which aims to make a dent in the waste produced by the estimated 11 million packets of crisps we consume every day in the UK is beginning to make its mark in West Sussex.
Three months after its launch by TV star Gary Lineker and environment secretary Michael Gove, over 8,500 collectors have signed up to the Walkers crisp packet recycling scheme - at least 20 of whom are in our county.
In this period, over half a million crisp packets have been collected by Terracycle, a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials.
These are enough to produce 250 benches made from recycled plastic.
Encouraged by this start, Walkers marked Global Recycling Day on March 18 by inviting more of us to start collecting and dropping off used crisp packets at collection points, to ensure a greater number of crisp packets get recycled.
The scheme’s biggest contributer so far is in North Lancing. Recycler Sue Wellfare has sent in almost 50,000 packets in just three months and, in addition to setting up a website, Facebook page and monthly newsletter packed with tips, is encouraging businesses and community centres to set up collection points.
A Walkers spokesperson said: “Her contribution alone could produce 25 benches made from recycled plastic.”
Terracycle head of communications Stephen Clarke said: “The public reaction has been fantastic. Since its launch, the Walkers programme has collected more than 700,000 crisp packets. We want as many people to recycle their crisp packets as possible and really engage with communities to collect together via the network of public access drop-off locations.”
Getting involved is easy: “Collect empty crisp packets and take them to your nearest recycling drop-off point. Or, if there isn’t a drop-off point nearby, download a label from the Terracycle website and arrange to have the packets collected from your home, by courier, free of charge.”
Stephen recommended collecting as many packs as possible in one go, sending them off in larger batches.
The packets are sent to Terracycle, which cleans and shreds them, ready to be made into small plastic pellets which are used to make everyday items such as outdoor furniture, trays and even roofing and flooring.
See www.walkers.co.uk/ recycle for drop-off points and www.terracycle.co.uk for details of this and other free recycling initiatives.