Cheltenham launches first foil-recycling service

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Cheltenham launches first foil-recycling service

People with learning disabilities in Cheltenham who attend Gloucestershire County Council's adult resource centres are launching the town's first ever foil bank recycling service. Cheltenham Integrated Recycling Project (CHIRP) is being launched by Cheltenham Town FC mascot at 11.30am on Wednesday 6th December at Oakley Resource Centre, Isbourne Road, Cheltenham.

Four centres in Cheltenham - Berkeley Court, The Bridge, Oakley and Greensteps, which run day services for people with learning disabilities, will take on specific recycling activities to suit their current facilities and client group. Oakley will be the base for aluminium foil recycling, where foil collected from local banks will be hand-sorted by clients and crushed into 25kg bales using an industrial compactor. These will then be transported in bulk to Avon Metals in Gloucester for re-melting into aluminium ingots to be turned into a range of aluminium products, like foil trays.

Cllr Ron Allen, cabinet member for learning disabilities said: "Gloucestershire County Council is committed to the three R's � reduce, recyle and reuse - and this initiative is a perfect example of joined up working. People with learning disabilities in the county have been leading the way on recycling enterprise for some time and I hope the initiative goes from strength to strength."

Recycling aluminium foil saves 95% of the energy it takes to make it from raw material, so the more foil that is recycled the more energy will be saved. Foil is often used as packaging, and some examples are pie cases, foil wrappers, lids, milk bottle tops, cooking foil and chocolate foil (all washed please!). However, many wrappers that may look like foil aren't, so if you�re not sure do the Scrunch test:

Scrunch and stay, it's foil; scrunch and spring back, it's not foil!

Cllr Stan Waddington, Cabinet Member for the Environment said: "Schemes like this can make a real difference to reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill and save energy into the bargain. I'd like to thank the clients and staff at all four centres for their hard work and commitment."

Income from the project will be re-invested into CHIRP. The Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (ALUPRO) are working with Gloucestershire County Council on helping to set up, develop and maintain the project. Cheltenham Borough Council are playing a vital role by adding foil recycling banks to its eight plastic bottle bank sites in Cheltenham. CHIRP will provide the foil banks and organise the collections.

Vision 21 (Glos), Friends of the Earth (Glos) and Cheltenham Centre for Change are also supporting CHIRP.


Posted : 02/12/2006 18:38:16

PLEASE NOTE: This story has been archived and the information contained within it may no longer be correct.


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