Anti-litter campaigner Danielle Wright is calling on Salford recyclers to make ‘ecobricks’ as a creative way to reduce plastic waste ending up on the street.

Ms Wright, who set up the volunteer litter-picking group Salford Litter Heroes, said: “At the moment I’m trying to encourage people to make ecobricks which are bottles and plastic which has been used.

“It actually saves a lot of energy and helps the environment even more if you just stuff the bottles with all the non-recyclable plastics. There are a lot of non-recyclable plastics in Salford and fill up bins which are only collected once every four weeks. If they overflow they end up on the floor and we end up picking them up.

“They can be used for building outdoor play areas and stuff like that.”

There are three drop off points at Salford so far which requires a lot of travel but she is trying to set one up in East Salford.

She said: “I’m also collecting bottle tops and a lot of people don’t know when recycling bottles you have to take the lid off. It’s a different type of plastic which means it can’t be recycled. I collect them in a tub and drop them off at a woman’s house who makes sure they’re recycled.”

Danielle is currently looking for creative ways of using these bottle tops. At her school she is making a world map and other possible art projects out of the different coloured bottle tops.

Infographic produced by Ben Redman

She praised the work of the local council who clean up people’s litter most of the time with a tight budget: “I’m quite biased when it comes to litter. Salford City Council are really good at cleaning up. If you report fly tipping or litter they clean it up but it does get there the next day.

“I think it’s just the continuous behaviour, nothing will change if people’s behaviour doesn’t change.”

Danielle isn’t sure if more regular bin collections would see a benefit. She thinks the council should start fining people more who litter and start fly tipping.

 

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