Youngsters play a key role in ensuring recycling programmes are a success.

That’s the view of a top councillor, following a push to promote Douglas Corporation’s recycling programme.

Ritchie McNicholl, chairman of the council’s environmental services committee, said: ’The younger generation are unwittingly playing a key role in promoting recycling.

’Many of them are coming home from school after attending educational sessions given by our waste services officers and seeing Rocky the Recycling Wagon, then pestering their parents to do more recycling.’

The council is keen to see more households recycle and so set up stands at big events, including Tynwald Day and the Noble’s Park fun day.

At Noble’s Park fun day, waste services officers manned a stand with information and laid on a ’Bring It, Bin It, Recycle It’ challenge. There was also a video to presentation on the Ballacottier recycling process.

For Tynwald Day, the council teamed up with the government and the team from western civic amenity site to push the virtues of recycling.

Mr McNicholl said feedback had been encouraging.

’Thanks are due to our government partners and to our officers for engaging members of the public so successfully, especially young children, who clearly thoroughly enjoyed discovering the recycling journey items such as drinks cans take,’ he added

’At Tynwald Day and the fun day, a good number of adults were genuinely interested to learn about what we do at our processing centre and to discover that not all household waste is simply sent to be incinerated.’

He added: ’There were also people who lived outside Douglas who wanted to know why they couldn’t have a kerbside collection and our officers encouraged them to speak with their local commissioners.’

He said the council was keen to make it easier for people to recycle and removing material from the waste stream, reducing costs.

’In short, the council is sending out a clear message - that recycling brings environmental and economic benefits, not just for this generation but for the generations that follow.’

For more information on recycling and the kerbside collection service visit recyclenow.im