Plastic bottles, tubs and trays are not being accepted at Harborough tip - and councillor is demanding answers

A leading councillor has hit out because plastic bottles, tubs and trays are not being accepted at Market Harborough tip.

Cllr Phil Knowles went on the attack as he also revealed that hard plastics are not being taken and recycled at any tips throughout Leicestershire.

He is now demanding “urgent answers” from Leicestershire County Council as public anger grows over the highly-contentious eco issue.

Cllr Knowles, who leads the Liberal Democrat opposition on Harborough District Council, said: “This invidious situation is simply not acceptable.

“We keep being told that the clock is ticking on our planet – and that we are at the 11th hour and 59th minute.

“But here we are clearly going rapidly backwards on the eco front.”

He added: “We have to pull out all the stops to defend, protect and improve our precious environment.

“That obviously means recycling as much as we possibly can.

“I am genuinely shocked by this very negative news.

“Along with a lot of other people I will be demanding urgent answers from the county council on what they are doing to put this right.”

Phil is taking action after an outraged woman took a load of plastics to be recycled at Kibworth tip – and was promptly told to dump it in the general waste skip.

“Plastic bottles, tubs and trays are not being accepted at our tip in Market Harborough as well as six others throughout the county.

“People are being told to try to recycle them in other ways,” said the long-serving Liberal Democrat.

“But how many will cart plastics home with them rather than just dropping them in the general waste bins there and then?

“It’s also very worrying that none of our waste sites are taking on hard plastics at the moment.

“How long has this been going on for and why exactly?

“A lot of people in Market Harborough and throughout the entire district are very angry about this.

“Our landfill sites are already overflowing all over the country.

“We have also seen the pictures of our magnificent oceans and seas across the world choked by thousands of tons of plastics.

“We have to stop this now.

“We have only got one earth, one home.

“And we have a duty and an obligation to look after it and clean it up not just for ourselves but for our children and their children as well.”

Cllr Trevor Pendleton, the county council’s cabinet member for waste disposal, admitted: “Unfortunately, there is not a sustainable outlet available where we can guarantee hard plastics, such as garden furniture, would be managed in an environmentally-responsible way and recycled properly.

“Plastic bottles, tubs and trays can be recycled through kerbside collections collected by district councils or taken to seven of our recycling and waste sites.”

He added: “Residents who visit sites currently not accepting plastics can place them in the general waste container.

“Alternatively, we encourage residents to consider if suitable hard plastics can be donated to local reuse organisations or charities.

“We are constantly monitoring the situation and hope to continue separately collecting this material at all of our sites in the near future if outlets become available.”