Old Swimming gear can now be recycled

Residents in Wiltshire can now recycle their old swimming equipment.

100-litre recycling points are being installed at Five Rivers Health & Wellbeing Centre in Salisbury and The Vale Community Campus in Pewsey.

Items that previously would have gone to UK landfills, such as goggles, floats and armbands, can now be reused into new products.

Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling said: “Swimming pools create a large amount of waste. Historically we have not been able to recycle these items, but by using the Leisure Loop Recycling Scheme people can help reduce the volume of waste going to landfill.”

With an estimated 15kg of waste generated by pools every two to three months, Cllr Ian Blair-Pilling called the initiative a “great” way of reducing Wiltshire’s contribution to landfill.

Once collected, the items will be sorted by material type (foam or plastic) and then by colour.

The material will then be shredded into tiny pieces and washed to create a new raw material. The raw material will then be used to create new products, like flip-flops, completing the ‘leisure loop’.

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