Householders in Wiltshire will be able to recycle their old carpets under new plans agreed by the county's waste management contractor, Hills Waste Solutions.

And, a new contract has been signed to recycle the county's old televisions at a facility in Wales. The contracts involve items taken to any of the 10 household recycling centres in Wiltshire, which are already achieving recycling rates of around 80% of materials taken in.

Cllr Toby Sturgis, Wiltshire county council's cabinet member for planning and waste, said: "Our Household Recycling Centres are very well used and one of the reasons why Wiltshire has such an impressive recycling record.

Televisions

Tens of thousands of televisions a year, which were previously disposed of at hazardous waste facilities, will now go to a recycling facility run by Singapore-owned firm Centillion Environment & Recycling Ltd, at Aberdare in Mid Glamorgan. The company will collect the televisions from the Wiltshire sites, and use laser technology to separate the different glass types in television screens.
Around 800 tonnes a year of televisions is expected to be dealt with through the new arrangement.

Carpets

Meanwhile, unwanted carpets and separate underlays will be collected using special containers at four of Wiltshire recycling centres in Melksham, Trowbridge, Purton and Stanton St Quintin. All types of carpets are accepted apart from those which are foam or rubber backed.

Collected carpets will be taken by Hills to Greenback Recycling Ltd's sorting plant which is in a disused aircraft hangar at Hullavington, near Chippenham in the north of the county.

Greenback managing director Kate Atkinson explained that a gate fee is charged for the carpets which are then segregated by fibre type using an infra red identification system. She said: "We bale them up as feedstock for the plastics industry, including PET, polypropylene, nylon and vulcanised rubber."

The 4m sq bales, tied with tape, are then exported through agents because at present there is thought to be no outlet for the material in the UK.

At present, Greenback is working with Wiltshire and Gloucestershire but is also close to signing agreements to take in material from other authorities in the region.