Over the weekend, Co-op Food Penarth on Windsor Road opened their new soft plastic recycling unit.

This means you can deposit soft plastic bags, film lids and packets to be recycled. Such items are not currently recyclable in the town's co-mingled blue recycling bags.

The items do not need to be Co-op own products or purchased from a Co-op. Users are simply asked to "clean it, scrunch it, Co-op it".

The unit is located near the entrance of the store.

"t doesn't matter where you bought them," Co-op say on their website. "Just pop your soft plastics into our recycling units and we'll do the rest. It means we can all do our bit for the environment.

"Soft plastics recycling is easy. Just follow these three steps:

• - Clean it – First, rinse your packaging out.
• - Scrunch it – Now, scrunch it up tight - if it pings back, it's a useful indicator it's soft plastic.
• - Co-op it - Pop it into our soft plastics recycling unit at a Co-op near you."

According to Co-op, 20% of their own brand products contain soft plastics.

These include film lids on yoghurt pots, soft fruit punnets and ready meals, as well as plastic crisp packets, pasta bags and chocolate or biscuit wrappers. They do not include plastic bottles, tubs, pots, trays and caps.

Co-op have rolled out the scheme across 1,500 of their nationwide stores. They hope to reach another 800 by the end of the year.