Plastics such as plastic bags, confectionary wrappers, foil lined packaging, plastic film, bubble wrap, food wrapping, fruit and vegetable net bags and more can now be placed in the blue lidded recycling bin (or red box/bag) for fortnightly collection. The plastic must be empty and clean, free from food residue and other contaminants.

Plastic bags and wrapping are a considerable challenge as they represented 22% of all UK consumer plastic packaging in 2020 but only 8% was recycled1. Until now, the only way to recycle plastic bags and wrapping was at supermarket front of store collection points.

Councillor Will Roberts, Portfolio Holder for Neighbourhood, said: “It’s fantastic to be selected as the first Council in Warwickshire for this recycling scheme, which is going to help reduce the amount of household waste going into the grey bin.

“Plastic bags and wrapping continues to be a large part of the way in which food and other products are packaged, so it’s great for our residents to be able to recycle these hassle-free at the roadside, safe in the knowledge that they’ll be recycled into other plastic packaging, bags for life, or materials used in farming and construction.

“Our partnership with and investment in Sherbourne Recycling continues to bring value to our residents, and we’re very grateful to the team there and at the Flexible Plastic Fund for enabling this new recycling scheme to happen.”

The launch of flexible plastics recycling in Warwick District is part of a larger £2.9m Flexible Plastic Fund ‘FlexCollect’ project, which involves nine local authorities across England, and aims to inform government and industry on how plastic bags and wrapping should be added to existing household collection services.

A full list of what flexible plastics can be recycled in your blue lid bin is available at the Sherbourne Recycling website.