MONEY made from recycling thousands of crisp packets in just over a year will be donated to an animal sanctuary.

Oxford residents have been able to recycle used crisp packets at the Oxford Direct Services Marsh Road Depot and it has all added up to extra cash for Oxfordshire Animal Sanctuary in Stadhampton.

As well as residents dropping off packets at the depot, Oxford City Council staff have been saving them at their St Aldates offices and ODS staff at their respective depots.

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Other groups, including blood donor centres, have joined in too, taking their crisp packets and biscuit wrappers to the depot.

Once collected, the crisp packets are sent to recycling company TerraCycle.

They arrange for them to be separated by plastic type, cleaned, and extruded into plastic pellets to make new recycled products.

Altogether, the animal sanctuary is set to receive an initial donation of £358.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet member for safer communities and customer focused services said: "This is a valuable and useful initiative. Residents can't recycle crisp packets in their blue bins, but if it's practical, can drop them off at the ODS Depot where we can guarantee they will be recycled.

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"That not only prevents crisp packets being incinerated, but raises money for charity as well."

TerraCycle offers crisp packet recycling locations across Oxfordshire and the rest of the UK. To find out more visit www.terracycle.com.