Low Carbon: Wrexham County Borough Council teams up with Tetra Pak for competition to get people squashing cartons

By Sarah Griffiths on Sep 24, 09 04:29 PM in News

RESIDENTS are being challenged to come up with an inventive way of squashing cartons before recycling them.

The council has teamed up with Tetra Pak to launch a 'How do you squash yours?' competition to celebrate the fact householders have embraced carton recycling since the introduction of bring bank collection facilities in Wrexham and to maximise space in the bins.

On average, milk, juice, smoothie and even wine drinkers in Wrexham will use a massive 7.1 million cartons each year.

According to tests carried out by carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment), every resident could fit in at least three times more milk or juice cartons in the bring banks if they simply squashed them first.

Not only does this help save space in kitchens it also ensures maximum capacity in the banks, allowing space for everyone to recycle all their cartons and also helps keep trucks off the road.

Whether sitting on it, flattening it with a space hopper or getting the local rugby team to squash it in a scrum, there are lots of ways that people can squash their empty cartons.

Wrexham County Borough Council and Tetra Pak are challenging every resident to film their most imaginative ways of flattening their cartons, and post their clips on www.howdoyousquashyours.co.uk.

The winning entrant, voted for by the public, can choose either a place on an exciting international environmental adventure from GVI or an Eco TV, 50 DVDs and a supply of wine or smoothies in Tetra Pak cartons.

Catherine Knight, recycling officer at Wrexham council, said: "We are supporting the 'How do you squash yours?' competition to get more people squashing every time they recycle, as this helps reduce the number of vehicles needed for collecting material and ensures more people can fit their cartons in the banks. Residents have responded really well to the availability of carton recycling facilities in the area, but we wanted to do something extra to encourage them to recycle as many of their cartons as possible."

Tetra Pak's recycling operations manager, Fay Dashper, said: "We were surprised to find out just how much difference squashing cartons could make to increasing the capacity for people to recycle."