Scottish Borders charity aims to help reduce the area's carbon footprint
Watch as Clare McNeil visits a Scottish Borders charity looking to reduce the carbon footprint in its local area.
A Scottish Borders charity is looking to help the local area by reducing its carbon footprint.
Sustainable Selkirk is giving local people a place to take rubbish which is hard to recycle. They collect plastics which can't be put into the usual council bins - such as toothpaste tubes and children's toys.
The service offered by Sustainable Selkirk is for people who can not recycle their items at the curb-side or at recycle points at supermarkets.
Explaining how the service works, Angela MacKeller from Sustainable Selkirk, said: “People can come in and it's the stuff that can't be recycled at your curb-side or at the recycle and collection points in the supermarkets.
"That could be the cheese packaging. It could be milk bottle tops. It could be old toothbrushes, including electric toothbrush heads and dental floss, broken plastic and non electrical toys."
People can bring their items to the charities base on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
They are then sent on to Terracycle which is a global organisation that recycles hard to process items and returns. The charity earns points which can be turned into funds. They can then reinvest back into their projects.
David Bethune from Selkirk Regeneration, said: “If you look on the packaging, it will say not recycled locally or can be recycled.
"A lot of it's about providing people with that information. People come in and say, can I recycle this or where can I recycle this?
"We can point them in the right direction. Really, it's about helping people to understand the impact of our consumer society and they can feel that they are helping in the environmental crisis that we're all facing."
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