THE NEXT DATE FOR THE RECYCLING AMNESTY IS SATURDAY 2ND DECEMBER – 9:30AM – 10:30AM AT ZERO WASTE TORFAEN

We hold a monthly recycling drop off at Zero Waste Torfaen for those wishing to recycle more than is taken by the council in your kerbside recycling box.

The benefit of bringing your recycling to our amnesty drop off is we know exactly where your recycling is going. Nobody knows what is happening with the mixed plastic recycling offered at Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Sainsburys. Money raised from the amnesty goes directly to local initiatives at local schools. Stretchy plastic is kept in the borough and goes to CVP in Blaenavon to make damp proof membrane and the cards go to a local charity who use them to make new cards and gift tags, which are then sold for their charity, Evolve in Old Cwmbran.

Please note that each of the following are separate collections and are sent off separately so please collect them in different piles or bags. Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to find out about Terracycle, the company who recycles most of the items below. Items brought to the recycling drop off get sent off to Terracycle and the collector received points which equate to money for a chosen charity.

Items accepted are:
Any brand of empty crisp packets, nuts, pretzels, popcorn but please ensure they are nice and flat to save on space
Any brand of biscuit/cake bar/cracker wrappers (including mini cheddars)
Broken and used pens, highlighters, markers, correction fluid pots
Any brand of toothpaste tubes, toothbrushes, toothbrush heads and packaging
Cheese packaging
Pringles tubes
Stretchy plastic
Greetings cards

Terracycle

Taken from their website…”TerraCycle is Eliminating the Idea of Waste® by recycling the “non-recyclable.” Whether it’s coffee capsules from your home, pens from a school, or plastic gloves from a manufacturing facility, TerraCycle can collect and recycle almost any form of waste. We partner with individual collectors such as yourself, as well as major consumer product companies, retailers, manufacturers, municipalities, and small businesses across 20 different countries. With your help, we are able to divert millions of pounds of waste from landfills and incinerators each month.”

So basically, the bigger companies who create the waste, sponsor the recycling schemes and members of the public and businesses create drop off points and send the waste to Terracycle. For each kilogram of waste sent, you receive a certain amount of Terracycle points which equates to money you can donate to a charity of your choice.

Don’t forget, traveling to a collection point to take a few items, unless you are going there anyway defeats the object of saving the planet and adds a huge carbon footprint onto the recycling. Save up as much as you can before making the journey and try tie it in with a trip to the refill station or town