Glass bank opens in Leeds

RECYCLE: Coun Lucinda Yeadon, left, and Emma Thompson, duty manager of Lidl in Halton, at the bottle bank.

This week new recycling facilities were opened at Lidl’s Halton store carpark. The banks join more than 700 other bottle banks in the Leeds area.

Coun Lucinda Yeadon, executive member for environment and sustainability at Leeds City Council, said: “Recycling glass is such a great way to make the most of our resources, help the environment and save money.

“More than 15,000 tonnes of glass bottles and jars are thrown away in household bins each year – that’s the same weight as 108 blue whales. Disposing of that costs Leeds over £1.5m in charges that could have been avoided if the glass had been recycled. This is money that would have been better spent on other local services.”

A spokesperson for Lidl UK said: “We are delighted to be able to support this local initiative. We hope that by providing glass recycling facilities at our Halton store, we will help to make recycling easier than ever for our customers.”

To celebrate the new glass banks, Leeds City Council and Lidl has teamed up with Friends of Glass, the campaign that supports glass packaging, to run a recycling competition.

The prizes – an iPad Mini, three Love to Shop vouchers totalling £300 and a Lidl hamper – will be awarded to the five best photos of shoppers recycling bottles or jars at a glass bank.

Shoppers can take a photo of themselves or friends and family at any of the 700 glass banks around the city, then post to twitter or Facebook with #RecyclingHero and tag @LeedsWasteDocs/leedswastedocs before March 18. See www.leeds.gov.uk/glass for more information.