Plastic fantastic! Huge water bottle recycling drive after big Telford mains burst - with video and pictures

Severn Trent Water distributed 500,000 litres in two-litre bottles to affected residents in Ironbridge, Woodside, Madeley, Sutton Hill and parts of Brookside when a main broke in Broseley last month leaving 20,000 homes and businesses along with schools without supplies.

Now collection crews from recycling firm Veolia have been busy picking up the extra empties that residents have deposited in purple bins at properties in the area.

Veolia's communications officer Sarah Maythorne said: "We would like to encourage residents to put their extra plastic bottles into their purple top bin.

"Should their bin be full, on this occasion we will accept extra bags of plastic bottles presented next to their purple wheelie bin on their recycling collection day."

The company which is the recycling and waste contractor for Telford & Wrekin Council says it expects to see an increase in plastic bottles being collected.

Its bin lorries collect from 75,000 households which equates to 1.9 million recycling pick ups a year.

And on average the wheelie bin crews collect 300 tonnes of recycling per week. Residents use purple lid wheelie bins for their glass, plastics and cans and a blue bag for cardboard and paper.

The borough's currently has a recycling rate of 47 per cent which has increased from 43 per cent since Veolia took over the recycling operations in 2014.

Plastic bottles are transported to the Veolia Materials Recovery Facility, in Wolverhampton, where they are separated and made into bales before being sent to processor where it is made into new items, such as plastic packaging, garden furniture and new plastic bottles.

Residents should visit the Telford & Wrekin website telford.gov.uk to check for their recycling collection date.

Those were left without water for more than 15 hours tare being offered £30 compensation by the water company which has apologised to the community for the inconvenience caused.

Problems were caused when a 21-inch pipe deep underground broke at 4am on September 24. Repair teams had to cut back trees before they could start digging a huge hole to remove and replace an 18ft section of pipe.