If the holiday season leaves you drowned in plastic, a municipal company can help.
Bourne Toys, based in Victor Way, recycles many plastics normally destined for landfill through several recycling programs, and turns them into cash donations for charity.
The family business currently supports Bourne-based Don’t Lose Hope and the Little Miracles branch in South Kesteven, and since the program started two years ago more than £ 2,000 has been raised through the Terracycle program. .
“There are different programs that we collect that are sponsored by big companies,” explained store owner Melanie Barber.
“When we have about 10kg of plastic on a specific program, we send them to Terracycle and we get points which can be turned into cash donations to charities of our choice.”
“We signed up as much as possible to make it a one-stop-shop to involve as many people as possible. “
The long list of items suitable for Terracycle includes tubes of toothpaste, packets of crisps, bread bags, toothbrushes, makeup wraps, roll-on deodorants, shampoo bottles, cheese wrappers, phone cases and pens.
It became so popular that Melanie enlisted the help of three volunteers – her 14-year-old daughter and her two school friends who donate four hours every Saturday morning.
They have also set up a program with Bourne-based Enva Plastics to collect type 2 plastic which collects between £ 150-250 per tonne, with the proceeds going to the Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire Air Ambulance. .
This includes milk bottles, shampoo bottles, laundry detergent bottles, talcum powder bottles and many more.
Stamps, batteries and ink cartridges are also collected and exchanged for charitable donations, as are aluminum such as drink cans, aluminum foil, and cake and tart cases.
The shop is open until Christmas Eve and then from Tuesday, January 4, but normal opening hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Wednesday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday to Saturday.
Recycling must be sorted or bagged in separate schemes before being picked up.