From garden furniture, plant pots, and non-electrical children’s toys – they all can be recycled in Cambridgeshire. Residents can now recycle rigid plastics as part of a new recycling scheme being launched across all of Cambridgeshire County Council’s nine Household Recycling Centres, including Milton.

The new scheme is being introduced after feedback from residents who said they wanted more opportunities to recycle bigger, bulkier plastics which have come to the end of their useful life.

This includes rigid plastics such as corrugated pipe, buckets, dustbins, water butts, garden furniture, plant pots, and non-electrical children’s toys. However, materials such as plastic bottles, yoghurt pots, ice cream tubs, PVC pipes and UPVC door and window frames are not suitable.

The County Council, in partnership with Waterbeach-based waste management company AmeyCespa, successfully trialled the new scheme earlier this year at Milton and Grunty Fen recycling centres. The trial netted nearly 27 tonnes of rigid plastics in three months. All of the rigid plastics collected were sent for recycling to a local company, Data Shredders, which is based in Wimblington near March.

Jemma Alston, Contracts Manager for AmeyCespa said

We would ask members of the public who take rigid plastics to any of the recycling centres to keep the material separate from other waste and inform our site staff they have these types of plastic. Our staff will then ensure the plastics are placed into the recycling containers, so we can maintain the high quality of plastics collected.

The Household Recycling Centres in Cambridgeshire are managed by AmeyCespa as part of its multimillion 28 year waste management contract with the County Council.

For more information about what can be recycled at your local recycling centre, go to www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/environment/recycling and follow the links.