After the recent surge of campaigners fighting against the excessive and careless disposal of plastic waste, local councils are encouraging people to think more carefully before disposing of their waste.

Both Devon County Council and South Hams District Council encourage and provide services to enable residents to sensibly dispose of their plastic refuse.

In total, an astonishing amount of 200,547 tonnes of material was recycled in Devon in the past year, totalling up to 3,268 tonnes of plastics. It is sorted into different grades and then sent to the correct reprocess station where it is turned into new plastic items such as bottles, fleeces and food containers.

A Devon County Council spokesman said: “We would urge everyone to ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ by only buying what you need, choosing products with as little packaging as possible, and using reusable bags and water bottles.

“More than 6,800 tonnes of plastic was recycled in Devon last year, with, 1,350 tonnes collected from Devon’s recycling centres.”

A spokesperson for South Hams District Council said: “Recycling is one of the council’s main priorities and is very important to help improve our recycling rates.

“Therefore, we are actively encouraging residents to recycle items from all over the home, for example their bathrooms, because 52% of people say they don’t currently recycle these items. These could be shampoo, conditioner, body wash and hand soap bottles.

“Latest research from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), tells us that recycling one hand soap dispenser bottle every month for a year, will save enough energy to bake a birthday cake.

“Residents can also recycle clean plastic cleaning product bottles, which are often thrown in the waste collection and not the recycling sacks. It is very important however to rinse items first to avoid contamination.

“We appreciate that residents want to recycle yoghurt pots, tubs and trays at home, unfortunately our existing contracts don’t allow this at the moment. Residents can however, take these items to the recycle centres at Tor Quarry and Ivybridge for recycling.

“We would like to see residents recycling as many materials as possible at home, we have just introduced the collection from the kerbside of the food and drinks cartons, we will continue to increase recycling opportunities for residents when and where possible.”

Across Devon there are around 20 different recycling centres; Torr Quarry Recycling Centre in Kingsbridge and Totnes Recycling Centre are the closest.

The Devon County Council website provides useful information about what can and can’t be recycled at these centres and helpful tricks to improve household recycling. Specifically, in the clear sacks you can throw away all types of plastic bottles(after emptying, rinsing, squashing and putting the lids back on), food and drink cans, empty aerosol cans, clean foil and jar lids. This does not include trays, yoghurt pots, plastic bags and wraps.