A decade of work between a local council, a leading soft-drink brand and a recycling charity has slashed the amount of plastic waste going to landfill in a tourist town close to the English Peak District. The 10-year partnership in Buxton – famous for its mineral water springs – features Nestlé Waters UK (Gatwick; www.nestle.co.uk), domestic plastics recycling charity Recoup (Peterborough; www.recoup.org), the High Peak Borough Council and Alliance Environmental Services (Buxton).

In 2020, Recoup carried out an audit of the waste collected over one weekend in Buxton to assess the effectiveness of the scheme and found that 90% of material was recyclable with a split of 79% for either plastic bottles or cans, 11% “other” recyclables, with only 10% non-recyclable material put into the bins. This is up 20% from previous assessments conducted in 2015, 2016 and 2017, when the overall collection rate for recyclable material was at 70%.

Over the past decade, the collaborative effort has delivered many initiatives including school education, roadshows, litter picking and brightly coloured bins on the streets of the town. Last year, Nestlé Waters UK invested GBP 31m (EUR 36m), boosting the capacity of its Buxton water plant.