Wellingborough day centre needs your old toothpaste tubes and crisp packets for fundraiser

People in Wellingborough have been left with big smiles on their faces with the introduction of a recycling scheme for toothpaste tubes and other dental products.

Not only will the collection of the items reduce the amount of plastic in landfill, the Terracycle recycling scheme has been raising money for the Glamis Hall charity.

Darren Pocock, a care manager at Glamis Hall For All community day centre, has been collecting the hard-to-recycle oral hygiene products as as part of a national scheme.

Now people in the area can recycle their toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and packaging as part of the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Programme to help Darren clean up.

Darren said: “I was looking for a way to reduce the amount of waste packaging the community produces, and I found these great free programmes run by TerraCycle to recycle a whole host of waste which the local council recycling collections can’t accept.

"Anyone can sign up and collect waste at home for recycling. I decided to go one step further by setting up a public access drop off location in Wellingborough, where anyone can drop off their oral care products, crisp packets and home care packaging (laundry and cleaning products).”

Darren has set up a public drop off location in the Glamis Hall For All community centre in Goldsmith Road where people can drop off the oral care products to be sent for recycling.

This type of waste can’t be included in local kerbside recycling collections so traditionally has ended up in landfill or has been incinerated.

Waste sent to TerraCycle is then recycled by shredding, cleaning, and turning it into a pellet format which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products such as outdoor furniture.

Funds raised by the green programme are to support the day centre, GLJ Theatre and a football club. For each unit of waste collected, Darren receives TerraCycle points that can be redeemed as a cash donation for Glamis Hall.

Darren added: “So far the Wellingborough community have helped us to send in more than 25,000 pieces of waste to TerraCycle for recycling, raising £133 for the centre.

"This initiative is a great way to help both the environment and the charity. So we encourage everyone in Wellingborough to drop off their oral care products and other accepted waste for recycling to our public drop off location between 9am and 3pm and to help us spread awareness locally by telling their friends, families, and colleagues.”

In the UK TerraCycle currently runs collection programmes for more than 50 types of waste which can’t be accepted by local council run recycling systems. Currently more than 6,700,000 individuals and organisations across the UK have signed up to collect, which to date has diverted more than 180 million items of packaging waste from landfill while earning more than £1,670,000 for schools, charities and non-profit organisations.

For more details about TerraCycle click here