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Research undertaken by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action
Programme) to mark the celebration of Recycle Week (2- 6 June)
in the UK, has highlighted a series of ‘hotspots’ in
the home, of ‘forgotten’ items of recyclable household
waste.
Whilst nearly two-thirds (62%) of consumers said that they
always remembered to recycle items from their kitchen, this
falls dramatically to around one-third for waste in other
areas of the home - such as the bathroom (36%) and bedroom
(34%).
From the Recycle Week survey, the top five items which
people say they don’t recycle are -
- aerosol containers for deodorant, air freshener, polish,
etc (62%)
- biscuit and sweet tins (53%)
- plastic shampoo and toiletry bottles (32%)
- plastic bottles of cleaning products - e.g. bleach, cleaner
or disinfectants (31%)
- glass jars, such as those for cooking sauces (20%).
The research also showed that 59% of people focused on recycling
cans, plastic drinks bottles, glass bottles, paper and card.
Over a quarter (26%) were unaware that items such as aerosols,
plastic detergent bottles, magazines and biscuit and sweet
tins could often be recycled.
This year, Recycle Week was about highlighting the
extra things we can easily do to recycle more and increase
the impact of our recycling efforts. According to Recycle
Now, recycling ‘one more thing’ could have
a significant impact on increasing household recycling rates
and help tackle climate change. If every household in England
recycled one additional item from a range of common household
products - such as aluminium drinks cans, steel food cans,
glass cooking sauce jars, plastic milk bottles and glossy
magazines every week for one year - the total amount collected
for recycling could increase by more than three-quarters of
a million tonnes and could, potentially, raise the national
household recycling rate by up to 3%.
Recycling ‘one more thing’ would also help to tackle
climate change by saving nearly 850,000 tonnes of CO2
equivalent - the same as taking over a quarter of a million
cars off the road each year, or saving the amount of energy
required to power 4 million 32" plasma televisions for
a year.
Fridey Cordingley, head of Recycle Now, said - “Sometimes
we don’t realise how much of our household waste can be easily
recycled - or, we think that recycling one more thing won’t
make a real difference. Recycle Week aims to inspire us all
to try and recycle a bit more and highlight that there is
a real benefit in doing so.
“If everyone in England recycled one more plastic shampoo
bottle, the energy saved would be enough for 46,000 households
to watch a 32” plasma TV six hours a day for a whole year."
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