HAVE you ever wondered why, despite being a good recycler, so much plastic ends up in your waste bin every week?

Would you like to be able to recycle more of it and thereby save landfill space and conserve valuable resources into the bargain?

Well, now you can!

On two Saturdays next month, on September 3 and 17, Sustainable Crediton's Waste Action Group will be carrying out a waste plastics collection trial in Morrisons supermarket car park in Mill Street, Crediton from 10am to 1pm.

Clean plastic drinks bottles, household cleaning fluid bottles, shampoo and shower gel bottles, margarine and ice cream tubs, cream, yoghurt and cottage cheese pots, salad pots, fruit and veg trays, frozen food bags, sandwich boxes, pre-formed biscuit and chocolate box trays, cds and cases and clean plastic flower pots are all recyclable and can all be taken along.

The volunteers will sort them into "dumpy bags", which will be taken to Devon County Council's recycling centres at Ashleigh, near Tiverton and Punchbowl, near Yeoford, where the contents will be added to the recycling stream.

Paula Mossman, facilitator of the group, explained: "We are carrying out this trial to raise people's awareness of how much plastic waste is actually recyclable and to see whether there is a demand for a permanent facility of this kind in Crediton.

"People constantly ask us why they can't recycle more plastics.

"Only milk bottles can currently be put into our kerbside recycling boxes, but actually lots more plastic is recyclable too.

"By collecting up your other plastic and taking it to the DCC recycling centres at Ashleigh and Punchbowl it can be used again and made into items such as traffic cones and garden furniture."

Anne Tucker, who has organised the trial, with help from a grant from Mid Devon Community Recycling, said: "People want to recycle plastics and actually there is very little plastic that currently cannot be recycled.