Cambridge recycling scheme allows you to have your cake
A community centre in Cambridge has become one of the first in the country to give people the chance to recycle biscuit, cake bars and cracker wrappers.
Cambridge residents can save their packaging from landfill while also raising funds for Orchard Park Primary School.
The Orchard Community Centre on Central Avenue in Cambridge has signed up as a collection point for recycling plastic packaging from biscuits, crackers and cakes – items that currently cannot be processed through councils’ collections.
The programme, run by TerraCycle and Pladis, the bakers behind British favourites including McVitie’s, Carr’s, and Jacob’s, allows people to drop off any brand of wrapper to the collection box from 8am to 2pm for recycling.
Biscuit and snack wrappers, like those of crackers and cake bars, end up in landfill as local councils simply don’t have the infrastructure to recycle these materials. The waste, however, is recyclable which prompted several Pladis brands to partner with recycling experts TerraCycle to set up the a recycling programme to offer a solution for consumers across the UK.
The community centre sends all of the biscuit and snack wrappers collected to TerraCycle. The items can then be used to make everyday products such as outdoor furniture, park benches and composite lumber.
All of the items sent for recycling will also earn TerraCycle points, which can then be turned into funding for the school.
Cllr Andrew Chan from the Orchard Park Community Council said: “The Cambridge community can really help boost our recycling efforts and the amount of funds we raise for Orchard Park Primary School by dropping off any brand of biscuit and snack wrappers, crisp packets, oral care waste, baby food pouches and Pringles tubes to our public access recycling boxes.”
