Public reminded to help the recycling teams by separating glass

The recycling crews at North Devon Council are reminding people how much it helps them when their glass is separated from the rest of their recycling.

Separating the glass helps them in two ways:

- as glass goes into a separate compartment on the recycling lorries, it means the crews don't have to separate it from the rest of the recycling box at the kerbside, speeding up the rounds which helps with coronavirus-related short staffing

- it gives them extra protection from the virus as they don't have to touch the items, they simply tip the them straight into the correct compartment on the lorry

The recyclers, along with the refuse collection crews, have been so grateful for the support shown to them throughout the outbreak and they're hoping the public won't mind making this minor change in order to make a huge difference to their working day.

Recycling operative Jordan Sluggett says: "The support we've had has just been amazing and we've been blown away by all the feedback and messages we've had. We know that people want to help us and so if they can just do this one small thing, it will help us so much and make it much easier and quicker to collect everyone's recycling."

If the separation of the glass works well, the council plans to give everyone a second recycling box to help people separate it out but in the meantime, people can put their glass in any container from a bucket or a plastic box to a carrier bag or robust cardboard box.