Every piece of plastic Somerset Council collected from households and via the recycling sites last year was recycled in the UK, Somerset Council can reveal.

The 6,500 tonnes of plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays all went to UK companies to be turned into new products and packaging – everything from plastic wrapping and compost bins to fleece jackets.

The figure is up from 99.4% the previous year and features in Somerset Council’s annual Recycling Tracker which will be released next week for Somerset Recycling Week.

The tracker shows what happens to every tonne of household waste – where it goes, the companies involved and the likely use, the latest tracker will be published online later in September, at: www.somerset.gov.uk/recycling-tracker.

Councillor Dixie Darch, Executive Lead Member for Environment and Climate Change said:

We want to lead the way and act responsibly to protect our environment, helping make Somerset a greener and more sustainable county. We are transparent about where our waste goes as a county, and are proud to say that all the plastic collected stayed in the UK.

Letting people know what happens to the recycling they sort has been shown to be a great motivator to get people recycling more, which is why Somerset was the first area to publish this kind of detail every year.

Responsibly reprocessing our waste is a priority, but we also want to back efforts to reduce the amount of waste we are producing. Recycling is great, but reducing and reusing is even better.

In Somerset, most types of plastic, including bottles, pots, tubs and trays can be recycled with kerbside collections using the Bright Blue Bag.

Somerset Council is one of a handful of authorities taking part in a national trial of the kerbside collection of plastic bags and wrapping. This is working well in the small sample of properties in Frome and the aim is to expand it in years to come.