MILLIONS of water bottles handed out to flood-hit residents in Gloucester are being recycled by a firm with a major plant in Southamp-ton.

Bottled water was a lifeline for up to 350,000 people in 130,000 flooded homes, and now recycling giant Recresco is preventing the plastic ending up as floating litter. The firm is handling 500,000 bottles a day, equivalent to eight tonnes, in what it is claiming is the biggest ever peace-time recycling operation.

Car interiors and carpets are just two of the future uses of the recycled plastic.

Eric Gent, a director at family-owned Recresco, which employs 50 people and has operational sites throughout the UK, including a glass recycling centre at Southampton's docks, said that the situation presented the local authorities with a unique problem.

He said: "The councils contacted us for assistance because it is not in anyone's interests to see tonnes of recyclable plastic floating around in flood waters, causing all sorts of environmental problems.

"We've been able to respond rapidly to provide a solution, calling on national company resources and setting up 11 plastic bottle recycling points in the worst-affected areas."

The Recresco plant in Southampton, near the King George V Graving Dock, deals with bottle bank glass brought in by local authorities from across the south.