Plastics Recycling Roadshow a stunning success

5.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 3rd Aug 2008

The Plastics Recycling Roadshow reaches Tetbury

The first two Liberal Democrat Roadshows, in Cirencester and Tetbury, encouraging real recycling of plastics on the doorstep in the Cotswolds have been a great success.

Roger Brown, Cirencester Councillor and LibDem Waste Champion at Shire Hall reported that the first roadshow was a huge success, with 120 people visiting the stall in the Cirencester market place in under two hours to sign the petition calling for plastics recycling on the doorstep in the Cotswolds. Over 250 plastic bottles were also collected for recycling. He was joined on the stand by Councillors Deryck Nash, (CDC and GCC, Cirencester) Rowley Hughes (Cirencester TC), Peter Clarke (CDC Water Park) and Paul Hodgkinson (CDC, Churn Valley).

Roger said - "It's obvious that this land filling of plastics hits a raw nerve, and many people, of all political views, were passionate about supporting recycling. Apart from local people we had visitors from Stroud, Belgium, Austria, France, Norfolk and Cheshire who all though it barmy that we don't recycle all our plastics. They could not understand that different bits of Gloucestershire had entirely different rules for collecting waste"

Roger's view is that that this short term lack of joined up thinking in the county will lead to both huge fines by the government (paid for, of course, by council taxpayers) under the Landfill Tax regime in the future, and the only way out of the problem for the Conservative administration at Shire Hall will be to reverse its previous manifesto commitment and build a giant incinerator to burn, rather than recycle waste, at Javelin Park, between Stroud and Gloucester.

Liberal Democrats believe that far more effort should be put into reducing waste and the residue should be treated by mechanical and biological methods- this is the Campaign for Real Recycling.

Even more signatures were added to the petition at Tetbury when the Plastics Recycling Roadshow called there on August 2nd.

The next Plastics Recycling Roadshow will be at Bourton-on-the-Water on 16th August, but anyone wishing to sign the petition can do so here on this web site by clicking of the "Petition" button in the left hand panel.