Kerbside recycling rates across Devon increased during lockdown according to the latest figures released by Recycle Devon.
Ahead of the 16th Annual Recycle Week (September 21 to September 27) the figures show a 12 per cent increase between April and June 2020.
And now, on behalf of Recycle Devon, Councillor David Harvey, chairman of the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee (DASWC), has thanked residents for their efforts during a ‘challenging’ time.
Figures show that 1,000 tonnes more glass bottles and jars were separated out and put in kerbside...
Devon residents are being urged to breathe new life into their old clothes and ‘wear what you have’ to help reduce their carbon footprint and to pass on clothes they no longer want to keep them out of the bin.
By making at least one of a series of pledges, residents will be entered into a prize draw with a chance to win one of 10 Duronic Fabric De-Bobblers.
An estimated 10,000 items of clothing are thrown away in the UK every five minutes - and last year £2.7billion was spent on clothes that were worn just once.
Exeter has become the first council in the UK to turn plastic bags collected from the kerbside into litter bin sacks, it has been revealed.
Green-thinking Exeter City Council has partnered up with plastic recycling company Jayplas for the UK first.
The ‘closed loop’ project sees waste polythene bags collected from households across the city and trade customers, sent to Jayplas’s new film sorting plant in Smethick.
Once there it is sorted into polymer type and colour, before being turned into recycled granules by washing and compounding the materials.
Restrictions at Devon’s Recycling Centres are to be eased further this week, with personal vans allowed to bring household waste from Wednesday 24 June. Vans will need to pre-book their visit at three of the county's busiest sites.
To ensure the recycling centres have enough capacity to serve as many people as possible, and to keep unloading times to a minimum, vans will only be able to bring the same amount of waste that would fit in a normal sized family car or trailer.
For example, standard vans such as a Ford Transits, VW Transporters or Vauxhall Vivaros should be no...
How much plastic do we really use, and can we live without it?
These are among the questions addressed by a tool that calculates the scale and extent of household plastic use, developed by the University of Exeter Business School’s plastics research hub.
The Exeter Multidisciplinary Plastics Research Hub (ExeMPLaR) estimated how much ‘invisible plastic’ is in our homes, as well as the amount of plastic materials coming in as products and leaving homes as waste each year.
Using a combination of national statistics and surveys, industry reports, academic research...
Devon County Council is reopening its recycling centres for essential use only from Monday 11 May.
The government has defined ‘essential use’ as waste that ‘cannot be stored without causing a risk of injury, health or harm to the resident or other members of their household.’
Residents are urged to follow government guidance and only travel to recycling centres if the waste presents a hazard and ‘cannot be legally and responsibly disposed of in other ways.’
It is the first stage of what will be a phased reopening for Devon’s 19 Household Waste Recycling Centres...
As the fight against plastic pollution gains more momentum, a South West business has invested £280,000 to bring a state-of-the-art plastic processing machine to the region and help Devon and Cornwall businesses recycle more.
Devon Contract Waste (DCW), a leading South West independent waste management company has installed the next generation plastic recycling machine at its plastics recycling and reprocessing plant, DCW Polymers, in Wrangaton.
The new machinery is capable of processing in excess of 100 tonnes of plastic a week. Prior to the arrival of the new shredding...
Recycling is growing increasingly popular every day, thanks to the efforts of eco-conscious citizens. This begs the question; how can you benefit from the junk lying around your house without throwing it away? Well, there are many great ideas you can try if you want to repurpose some of your old household items. Not only will this help reduce environmental pollution, but it will also help you save a pretty penny! So, if you are interested, check out these 7 household items that you can transform and reuse.
Devon residents are being invited to join the Donation Generation by pledging to reuse and repair clothing as much as possible and reduce the estimated 10,000 items of clothing thrown away in the UK every five minutes.
Every pledge made will be entered in a prize draw on 2 March 2020, to win one of 10 Upcycling and Repair kits.
The kits consist of handy items to help repair and upcycle clothing easily such as fabric scissors, iron-on patches, repair tape, cottons, needles and buttons.
To enter, residents can pledge to undertake various waste saving actions, such as...
A Facebook post about recycling tealights has had an unexpected reaction, with requests from people across the UK wanting to know more.
The Recycled Candle Company posted an image of founder Richard Hills-Ingyon holding a bag of tealights to illustrate that the business can recycle them.
Richard said: “Most people know that we recycle used candles, but we were getting asked more and more about tealights and the possibility of recycling leftover wax.
“We were absolutely amazed by the reaction, with hundreds of people liking and sharing the post, and asking for...
