Exeter blazing a trail of innovation and environmental protection

Published: 19 October 2022

Exeter is playing a big part in the production of exciting new products that are being created from plastics found in the ocean and beaches in the South West.

Two new products, a reusable coffee cup and a comb come directly from recycled plastics being processed and granulated at Exeter City Council’s Materials Reclamation Facility in Exton Road.

Both are a great example of how Exeter City Council is playing its part to clear the region’s waters and beaches of damaging plastics and at the same time turn them into useful day-to-day items.

Circular&Co. has come up with a reusable coffee cup made from 50% beach waste. Retailing at £14.95, fifty per cent of sales goes directly to Ghostnetbusters ALDFG Recovery, a Cornish community group that recovers abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear.

The cup and its beach plastic content comes from a collaboration between the City Council and Odyssey Innovation.

Also on sale is an E-comb, made from recycled beach plastics, processed and granulated in Exeter.

The comb, available in a variety of colours, has been produced by PlymPlastics in Plymouth. Again, it is a product that has been produced following a collaboration between the City Council, Odyssey Innovation, Plymouth University and Indigo.Interreg.

Cllr Ruth Williams, Lead Councillor for Recycling Waste Management and Waterways, said she was proud of the efforts to recycle plastics in Exeter.

“We are blazing a trail of innovation and environmental protection here in Exeter and the South West,” she said.

“This is something we are rightly proud of, not only helping to clear our beaches and seas of damaging plastics but also working on devising useful everyday end products.”