County council plea: help prevent waste at Easter

Eighty million eggs are sold across the UK each year, which means thousands of tons of wasted cardboard and foil wrappers.

Now West Sussex County Council is urging people to consider choosing ones with less packaging.

Eggs without a plastic box are even better as currently only plastic bottles can be recycled at the county’s award-winning Materials Recycling Facility.

County Council Cabinet Member for Resident Services, Lionel Barnard, said: “Easter is a fun family time, but with so much waste from Easter eggs we must remember to recycle the packaging. We all love the eggs; we just don’t love what ends up in landfill, so much of which can be avoided.”

The advice is that when you are surrounded by empty boxes, flatten the cardboard, roll the foil into balls – making sure it’s all clean, dry and loose - and pop them in your recycling bin.

Last year alone West Sussex residents recycled 46 tons of foil, which, if laid out flat that could reach from the top of Great Britain to the bottom 47 times.