The new advisory service will be announced at the Recycling and Waste Management exhibition next week in Birmingham, and will assist local authorities trying to increase or introduce plastics collections and recycling projects.
Some of the ways in which Recoup will assist councils will include advice on more efficient plastics collections and recycling projects as well as helping to ascertain suitable markets for secondary plastics.
Mr Simmons hopes the service will help dispel “some of the myths associated with plastics recycling including what people perceive as the expensive costs associated with collection and recycling.”
He added that Recoup could tailor the service according to the needs, size and waste strategy adopted by the local authority and could vary its role from a half day question and answer service on plastics recycling to the project management of a whole plastics recycling scheme.
Mr Simmons commented that although local authorities are under pressure to increase their recycling rates, “some councils do not have the time, resources or experience that we do with plastics recycling and that’s where we can help.
“We also need to make people aware that there is a market for recycled plastics, for example local authorities use products made from recycled plastics all the time like street furniture, fencing and road-signs,” he added.
Recoup said it would work with councils hoping to incorporate plastics recycling into their waste strategies by explaining issues, putting reports together on costs of running different schemes, and in cases, such as those schemes it has helped establish in Warrington and in Kent, plan and assist with fund raising and helping to roll the whole plastics collection and recycling schemes out.
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