DERRY City and Strabane District Council have just launched a new campaign in a bid to get people to recycle more plastic waste around the house.
Recycling Starts at Home aims to highlight the materials that can be recycled in your blue bin and encourage householders to recycle items from all rooms in the home, not just the kitchen.
Council’s Head of Environment, Conor Canning, said there are lots of items that could be disposed of as recyclables that people just aren’t aware of.
“Recycling saves local people money as it’s twice the cost for ratepayers to send materials to landfill compared to recycling,” he explained.
“This money could be spent on local services like parks, leisure centres and events so we are asking people in Derry and Strabane to bear this in mind when disposing of items.
“We have found that while most people are good at recycling plastics like pots, tubs and trays in the kitchen, many are still not taking recyclable materials like cleaning products, shampoo bottles or hand wash containers from the bathroom to their blue bin.
“Some householders also forget to rinse food containers before recycling so we’d like to remind people of the simple Empty – Rinse – Recycle rule.
“Another problem is that cling film isn’t being removed from containers before they are put in the blue bin – we’d like to make people aware that this type of soft plastic cannot be recycled and must go in your black bin.
“There’s an eco-warrior in all of us and recycling can be a fun activity to do particularly with children at home.”
If you haven’t already, download Council’s free recycling app, Bin-ovation, or check out our website www.derrystrabane.com/recycling
