Businesses in the tourism sector in Pembrokeshire have often complained about the lack of recycling facilities for the mountains of plastic bottles and packaging that they gather from their guests or visitors each year.

But help was at hand on February 5 at the Bloomfield Centre in Narberth. PLANED organised a 'Meet the Plastic Recyclers' session where tourism businesses and others could find out what Carmarthenshire Recycling and Birch Farm Plastic Collection Ltd could do for them. Birch Farm Plastics have collected materials such silage film from farms in Wales for years and now have the contract for the whole of the UK. They intend to branch out and collect plastic bottles too. Carmarthenshire Recycling are a private company that deals with most of Carmarthenshire's recycling needs and offers a collection service for businesses, especially campsites in Pembrokeshire. Individuals can also take their plastic to the Carmarthenshire Materials Recycling Facility in Johnstown near Carmarthen for free. The collection service from businesses does incur a small cost but the alternative is to pay the ever-increasing costs for taking plastic waste to landfill sites, which will continue to rise as these sites fill up. Several businesses who attended the seminar were able to discuss terms and sign up for the service at the event. Others hopefully will be taking advantage of the service. I can help your business sign up for this service if you join PLANED's Tourism Recycling Network. Please ring me, Jo Brookman, on 01834 862119 or email me on [email protected]">[email protected] At the same event, it was wonderful to see that some communities had already set up plastic collection services for recycling. One group in Croes Goch are running a service for nearly 200 people. At the meeting, they were able to liaise with Carmarthenshire Recycling who will take their plastic, Mil-tek who can sell them a compactor/baler for easier transportation and ARENA Network who should be able help them with funding. PLANED can help communities who are interested in setting up a similar service, please ring me on the above number for further information.

Jo Brookman