Spelthorne last to have Tetrapak recycling

11.16.00am BST (GMT +0100) Sat 3rd May 2008

Despite talking a good recycling game, Spelthorne still doesn't have Tetrapak recycling facilities and every Borough which borders onto Spelthorne has something.

Lib Dem Councillor, Robbie Colison-Crawford, asked a question at the recent Council meeting to find out what was happening about recycling facilities for TetraPak packaging. This is something that many other Councils have implemented and Spelthorne are once again slow in adopting good ideas.

For some time now Tetrapak have been working with local authorities to establish bring sites for their product. Tetrapaks have a complex structure and require dedicated facilities to recycle them. They are a major source of packaging waste and at the moment there are no facilities in Spelthorne to support recycling them.

Facilities exist in ALL the neighbouring boroughs including Elmbridge and Runnymede.

Full details of Teatrapak recycling sites are available on their website. The link below is to the Tetrapak interactive map of recycling sites.

http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/locator.asp

The question asked by Councillor Robbie Colison-Crawford is set out below together with the Council response:

"Has the Council taken up Tetrapak's offer to local authorities to install Tetrapak recycling facilities at designated 'bring' sites and, if so, when can we expect the collection of Tetrapaks to commence?"

Response:

"Our legal team have already drafted a service level agreement for Tetrapak banks to be located at our bring sites. We are now awaiting a response from Tetrapak, which we hope will include a timetable for installation of the banks and we trust this will be as soon as possible."

Local Liberal Democrat Councillor Caroline Nichols has been urging the Council to take up the Tetrapak scheme since she was elected last May. She said "Tetrapak approached all local authorities early last year offering a collection service for free. Why is it that we are the last Council in this area to be taking up the offer? Every other Council has managed to move this forward. Tetrapaks now form a large part of domestic waste and we need to be recycling everything that we can."