Comedian Dave Spikey has helped launch a groundbreaking recycling plant by urging people to take more care over what they put in their bins.

The award-winning comic, from Bolton, made the plea as he toured the £12m Materials Recovery Facility, in Sharston, Wythenshawe.

The plant is more efficient than existing services – it will process 16 tonnes of recycled waste an hour and 90,000 tonnes a year.

And Dave, who co-wrote Phoenix Nights with Peter Kay, is now spearheading a campaign to cut the amount of waste that cannot be recycled which is put into recycling bins. A crowbar, a stretch of hosepipe and a basketball are among items that have been wrongly sent to the facility – along with unrecyclable yoghurt pots, food trays and plastic bags.

Dave said: “Recycling is the one thing we can do that has a huge impact on the environment. We all have to do our bit and it’s important to do it right.”

The campaign has been launched on behalf of Recycle for Greater Manchester, which has built the new facility.

Hi-tech machines sort through waste and split up the different plastics and metals using lasers and magnets.

Just five people at a time pick out products that cannot be recycled – much fewer than in other recycling centres.

It means that just 5pc of what goes into the facility end up in landfill. But recycling bosses are trying to reduce this figure by asking people to take more care of what they put in the recycling bin.

Coun Neil Swanwick, chairman of GMWDA, said: “We want to reduce this further and are encouraging people put the right materials into the right bin.”

Stephen Jenkinson, chief executive of waste management firm Viridor Laing, said: “We’re really proud of this facility – it’s the best of its type in the country. This is about making people sharper about what they recycle.”

An information pack featuring the comedian will soon drop through letterboxes. It will tell people some of the common items that are often mistakenly put into recycling bins.

Recycle for Greater Manchester is a partnership between the Greater Manchester Waste Disposal Authority and Viridor Laing (Greater Manchester) Limited.

Source: MEN