Llanidloes residents and visitors can now recycle while exploring the shops and streets of the ancient market town.
‘Sending a Message in a Bottle’ founder, Phil Stallard, with help from the Waste Awareness Team at Powys County Council, has found a use for redundant recycling bins which had been put into storage.
Spar Llanidloes agreed to trial the bins outside its store and, since early November, passers-by have been able to deposit their bottles and cans ready to be recycled.
The town’s street clean operative, Rhys Llewellyn Sheppard, empties the bins and delivers the full bags to Phil who sorts the contents to ensure they are 100% suitable for recycling. The contents would otherwise have gone to landfill or even littered the streets.
“These bins increase the awareness in people of all ages that we need to respect plastic and recycle it wherever possible,” said Phil. “In addition to these street bins, Sending a Message in a Bottle now has recycling bins inside Ysgol Gynradd Llanidloes Primary School and intends to place more in Ysgol Uwchradd Llanidloes High School to further reinforce the message.
“We need to work as a community to reduce plastic use, plastic waste and plastic litter in our beautiful town and in the upper reaches of the River Severn. What we drop here can wash 200 miles to the sea and affect wildlife, the environment and human health in the long term.
“We are reducing plastic from source to sea with the help of this fantastic town and it’s brilliant business and residential communities. We have a large group of volunteers from Llanidloes and other inland towns who also carry out monthly beach cleans along the Ceredigion Coast.”
Together with Rhys and Llanidloes Rotary Club, he is organising another town-wide litter-pick to ensure they keep on top of the litter.
It is hoped that the success of these bins will encourage others to volunteer to carry out a similar exercise elsewhere and help spread the Message in a Bottle far and wide.
Anybody wishing to find out more about reducing plastic can join the Sending a Message in a Bottle Facebook Group.
