Pauline Britton from Ealing has raised £5,600 for St. Thomas' Church by collecting and recycling "unrecyclable" items from the community, which are sent in for recycling with TerraCycle.

Pauline has signed up to several of TerraCycle's free recycling programmes which have allowed her to establish a drop-off point for "hard-to-recycle" items.

The programmes include the Air, Home and Laundry, RB® Hygiene, and Warburtons® Bakery free recycling programmes, enabling Pauline to collect items like plastic bread bags, air freshener cartridges as well as home and laundry care product packaging. 

These items are not included in council kerbside recycling collections so have traditionally been destined for landfill or incineration.

Once dropped off at St. Thomas' Church, the items are sent to TerraCycle, the world leader in recycling hard-to-recycle waste, where they are given a new lease of life.

For every item collected, TerraCycle points are earned. These points can be redeemed for monetary donations, which Pauline is using to repair St. Thomas' Church and hall.

The drop-off point can be found at St. Thomas's Church in Elthorne Park and is open to the community 24/7. Local residents are encouraged to bring their "unrecyclable" items to the location to be recycled and help boost Pauline's fundraising efforts.

Pauline, the administrator of the drop-off location, commented: "To date, we've raised £5,600 for St. Thomas' Church by sending waste to TerraCycle, saving 6,000kg of waste from landfill in the process, which is a fantastic achievement.

"These donations have funded the redecoration and repair of the Church, a vital space for both the church group and the wider community. We've already installed low-energy lighting and plan to use the remaining funds to repair the leaking roof.

"We encourage everyone in the area to get involved and sort, save, and bring the items we can recycle to our drop-off location. It's a great way to reduce the amount of waste you send to landfill, whilst helping to raise money for a great local cause!"

The collected items are sent to TerraCycle and are recycled by shredding, cleaning, and turning them into plastic pellets which can then be used by manufacturers to create new generic plastic products, such as outdoor equipment – reducing the need to extract new resources from the planet.

Pauline has signed up to the Air, Home and Laundry Care, RB Hygiene Home, Warburtons Bakery, Pringles Tube, and Taylors of Harrogate Free Recycling Programmes.

For more information about TerraCycle, or to get involved and help Pauline with her recycling efforts, head to https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB.