Archived press release

Date Published: 02/06/06

AVDC is urging local residents to take advantage of new recycling facilities on offer in Aylesbury Vale. Five more aluminium foil recycling banks have been provided by the council, which will improve access for local residents and boost recycling...

AVDC is urging local residents to take advantage of new recycling facilities on offer in Aylesbury Vale.

Five more aluminium foil recycling banks have been provided by the council, which will improve access for local residents and boost recycling rates in the district.

The new recycling points have been introduced to mark this year’s national Big Recycle Week, which kicks off on Monday 5 June. Big Recycle Week is part of a high-profile promotional campaign, ‘Recycle Now’, which aims to encourage everyone to recycle more household waste.

New aluminium foil recycling banks will be located at:
• Bedgrove Community Centre, Ambleside, Bedgrove, Aylesbury
• Exchange Street car park, Aylesbury
• Walton Court Shopping Centre, Ellen Road, Walton Court, Aylesbury
• Watermead Inn, Watermead, Aylesbury
• Wyevale Garden Centre, Aylesbury Road, Wendover

The five new banks will increase the number of aluminium foil recycling points in the district to 12. There are 114 recycling sites in total across the Vale.

Councillor Michael Edmonds, Cabinet Member for Housing, Environment and Health, said: “These sites are allowing residents to recycle their rubbish quickly and easily. They are also helping to cut down the amount of rubbish going into residents’ green bins and provide a sustainable alternative to landfill.
 
“Aluminium is a particularly good example of how recycling benefits the environment. Recycling aluminium saves approximately 95 per cent of the energy required to make new aluminium as well as helping to conserve resources and reduce waste.”

Only clean aluminium foil should be placed in the foil banks. When washed, foil milk bottle tops, tops of yoghurt pots and cartons, baking and freezer trays, kitchen foil, takeaway and ready meal containers can all go into the yellow aluminium foil banks for recycling.

Shiny crisp and snack packets often say ‘foil wrapped for freshness’. However, these packets aren’t aluminium foil but plastic film coloured silver and can’t be recycled with the foil. Use the scrunch test to check whether it is aluminium foil; if it springs back when scrunched in the hand, it is plastic and can’t be recycled with the foil.

Aluminium foil is collected by the Aylesbury Recycling and Reuse Centre (ARRC), which provides a recycling and re-use facility for Aylesbury Vale. ARRC also provides sheltered work opportunities for adult volunteers with learning disabilities. The volunteers gain useful hands-on training and skills by sorting and baling the foil at the ARRC’s depot in Stoke Mandeville.

The decision to provide new recycling banks is part of AVDC’s ongoing campaign to increase the amount of material recycled in Aylesbury Vale every year, in line with government targets. People in Aylesbury Vale currently recycle about 20 per cent of their rubbish by weight, and the council is now working towards achieving 30 per cent.

Existing aluminium foil recycling banks in Aylesbury Vale are located at:
-  Tesco, Tring Road and Broadfields Retail Park, Bicester Road, Aylesbury
- Morrisons, Station Way, Aylesbury.
- Haddenham Village Hall, Church Way, Haddenham
- Stoke Mandeville Recreation Centre, Eskdale Road, Stoke Mandeville
- Bucks CC Sports and Social Club, Lower Road, Stoke Mandeville
- Household waste site at Rabans Close, Rabans Lane, Aylesbury