Kenilworth residents raising money for charity by collecting a range of hard-to-recycle plastics

Kenilworth residents are raising money for youth wellbeing projects by collecting and recycling ‘hard-to-recycle’ items from the community.

May Lau and other volunteers of the Recycle for Kenilworth group have signed up to 17 of TerraCycle’s free recycling programmes, such as the Philips dental care free recycling programme, the Marigold free recycling programme, the Taylors of Harrogate (coffee) free recycling programme, and others, to collect home and self-care related items and food packaging.

They are also collecting many other types of flexible food packaging such as crisp, biscuit, cheese, coffee, confectionery and bread packaging.

Once collected to various sorting points, the items are properly sorted by one of the volunteers at home and/or Duke of Edinburgh (DofE) volunteers at the Kenilworth Centre (tKC) before being sent to TerraCycle.

For every item collected TerraCycle points are earned which are redeemed as monetary donations to May’s chosen charity – the Kenilworth Centre (tKC).

May had previously been collecting on her own but now there are a few private volunteers – known as Recycle for Kenilworth – collecting and sorting these items.

Residents are encouraged to text May at 07983 338708 to find out the full list of items collected and to arrange a monthly collection to help boost the group’s fundraising efforts.

May said: “The Kenilworth Centre is a fantastic charity that aims to make Kenilworth an even better place to live, learn, study and visit.

"It offers a range of activities and support systems for the isolated and those finding themselves on the margins of the community.

"It delivers cost of living events as well as provision for emergency food vouchers and works in collaboration with local schools to provide breakfast and lunch provision.”

The collected items are sent to TerraCycle and are recycled by shredding, cleaning and turning into plastic pellets which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products, such as outdoor equipment.

May added: “Previously as a one-person operation, I have sent in over 70 kg of hard-to-recycle plastics to TerraCycle for recycling that would have otherwise ended up in local landfill or incineration, raising around £75 in the process.

"All monetary donations collected go directly to tKC. Since April 2022, we have attracted Volunteers as well as Kenilworth charity groups’ support.

"We will always need more private and DofE volunteers to help with collection, sorting, and communication to their schools.

"I encourage everyone in the area to get involved and give Recycle for Kenilworth their tricky items for recycling as this simple action not only does something good for the environment but also raises much needed funds for the Kenilworth Centre at the same time.”

Text May at 07983 338708 to get more information, get involved and help Recycle for Kenilworth with their recycling efforts.

For more information about TerraCycle go to: https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB