A free recycling point has been installed at the offices of East Cambridgeshire District Council (ECDC) to encourage more people to recycle crisp packets and sweet wrappers.

The council has teamed up with waste management company Terracycle, who specialise in hard-to-recycle waste, to work on a new scheme which aims to get more people to recycle items that are currently excluded from regular domestic recycling collections.

It is the same company that Walkers partnered with, in October 2018, after members of the public began to post their empty crisp packet wrappers back to Walkers through the Royal Mail service.

ECDC have joined the scheme which offers a free recycling point where members of the public can bring in items which they cannot currently put into their blue bins.

The bin accepts crisp packets, sweet wrappers, chocolate bar wrappers and snack bags.

The wrappers are collected and sent off to Terracycle, where they are separated by plastic type, cleaned and extruded into plastic pellets to make new recycled products.

Councillor Julia Huffer, who is waste service delivery champion for East Cambs Council, said: “The reaction nationwide to the 38 degrees campaign shows that there is a need for this service and we want to do our bit for our district.

“Recycling is of paramount importance in our district and this is another exciting scheme which the council has adopted to urge members of the public to recycle more of their waste.

“Since transferring our waste services to East Cambs Street Scene, we have been able to take on campaigns like these which help us get one step closer to our recycling target of 60 per cent in the district.

“We are thrilled to have this programme available to our residents and we hope they utilise this facility.”

The council also adopted the Metal Matters scheme last year with the aim of recycling more metal in the district.

It has also supported the Bin It Your Way initiative aimed at cleaning and keeping the streets clean from chewing gum.

Similarly, the council have a recycling champion, Michael Recycle, who was recently awarded gold at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Pride awards for the Anglia, Thames and Chiltern region in the education campaign category.

For more information on recycling in East Cambridgeshire, visit: www.eastcambs.gov.uk/content/recycling-and-waste-ecss