One couple was fed up by the inconsistent recycling policy that led to more plastics being sent to landfill sites.
So Hannah and Danny Iwanejko, both 36, to open up their own collection point, itself made out of recycled materials, in the driveway of their Bilsthorpe, Nottinghamshire home.
Not only do they accept all kinds of plastics, but it’s also free for the public to use.
Watch the video of this amazing act below.
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Video credit: Rumble
Hannah explained, “The problem is there is no consistency across the council. One council say you can recycle this, this, this and this. Another council says you can recycle this, this, this and this. However, it is all recycled by the same people. Yet one bin allows something and another doesn’t. Why is it not across the board?
“It is so frustrating that the council won’t take tetra, crisp packets and bread bags. People want to recycle but the council is not making it easy for us. There are so much bureaucracy and red tape in the way.”
This is why their own recycling center accepts different items from crisp packets to Tetra Pak packaging.
Building their own recycling facility was helped by the fact that the couple owns a High Access maintenance business which is about repairing things well above the ground.
A Facebook community page by a woman in Calverton gave Hannah the idea of putting up her own center.
“I’ve always been a bit of an eco-warrior,” Hannah said.
She came to that decision on the first birthday of her daughter Robyn.
“I didn’t want to put people off but I was surprised to see friends making changes I never thought would. I thought: ‘Hang on a second, I can do my bit. I need a central point where people can easily recycle,” she said.
Husband Danny used scrap material to put the recycling hub together.
“It barely cost us anything … I put the rubbish in reusable plastic boxes in my VW T5,” she added.
“People are coming with their waste from outside and village and people from all over are contacting me asking how to do it themselves,” Hannah said.
“I never expected to make it this far. It was just meant for the community,” she added.
“Some people are going to think: ‘What is this woman doing?’ But others will recycle more.”
Hannah makes the trip to public drop-off locations for crisp packets. These are funded by Walkers and volunteers run them. The bread bags go to a Terracycle drop-off.
Terracycle specializes in hard-to-recycle items and converts them into plastic pellets that can be used for making items like plant pots and park benches.
All these schemes are free to use because they’re paid for by businesses.
The Iwanejkos have made an appeal to the Newark and Sherwood District Council to improve their facilities to stop more complex materials from getting sent to landfill.
Council spokesperson Rhona Holloway said: “I’m sure that’s something that’s going to be looked at and I’m sure in the future they will be able to.
“But it’s about what can be safely recycled and how those different elements incorporated into the waste can be isolated and used.”
Replaced!