100,000, that’s the number of crisp and snack packets that Peasedown Environment Group (PEG) estimate have been collected since they started gathering plastic waste that would have gone to landfill.

The collections go to Terracycle who take plastic waste and turn it back into new plastic products and raw materials for reuse. In September PEG’s collections passed the half ton mark and of that 160kg was crisp and snack packets.

PEG have an amazing team of volunteers who help with the monthly collections and sort the material that’s brought in. Month by month we see more people who have got the idea and are bringing their recyclable rubbish that can’t go in the Council collection. Thank you to them.

What does this half ton of rubbish look like? August’s collection is in the picture and that included not only 11kg of crisp and snack packets but a whole range of other items that the group collects – pens and felt-tips, sweet wrappers, oral health products, biscuit and cake wrappers, bread bags, oral health products, Pringles tins, cheese wrappers and pill blister packs. Multiply the waste in the picture by about sixteen and you’ll know what half a ton looks like.

What happens to the material? Once its sorted the collected material goes to a local ‘agent’ who gathers material from various places and sends it to Terracycle. Most of the schemes of recycling are sponsored by manufacturers which means that the local agent gets paid a small amount for a charity and so PEG’s collection supports the Woodland Trust. This means that not only is this material kept out of landfill it also helps the environment.

Alongside the Terracycle collection PEG have also collected over five hundred ink-jet cartridges raising more than £130 for Climate Stewards an environmental charity planting trees in Africa; over two hundred pairs of spectacles for Midsomer Norton Lions Club who send them for reuse overseas; and more than one hundred hand tools that are refurbished and sent, as carpentry or mechanics kits, to Africa.

There is, however, bad news as well as good. That half ton of recycled plastic saved from landfill is only a tiny part of the plastic produced. Plastic generation per person in UK is about 98kg per year which means PEG have recycled only five people’s annual plastic. While PEG have an amazing group of people bringing their waste material to the collections every month, there are far more people who are just binning this waste. PEG would love to be overwhelmed with more material for recycling or re-use.

But PEG would love to stop having collections altogether if only industry and government took action to reduce that 98kg of plastic per person. We face a mountain of totally unnecessary single-use packaging.

If we refused to accept the plastic and questioned the manufacturers, we’d have far less plastic waste to sort and handle every month. On top of that every ton of waste plastic that goes into landfill costs the people of Bath and North East Somerset in their Council Tax. Less waste, less tax or more to spend in the community.

At the same time as celebrating success, PEG are also concerned that we continue to spoil our planet. If you would like to help us by bringing yet more of our recyclable materials from the list above you would be welcome.

The next collections are on 20th and 22nd October, 24th and 26th November and 26th and 28th January, all at Peasedown Methodist Church from 10am – 11.30 a.m.

For further information contact Ian Souter on: [email protected] 01761 433251