Blog

Residents on a street in Sheffield ended up taking their own recycling bins to the depot claiming they were fed up with waiting for them to be emptied, they claim their recycling hasn't been emptied for over 18 months despite contacting the council and waste company numerous times

This weeks Recycling Roundup include official figures provided by Defra say that the UK has exceeded its packaging recycling target, a village in South Wales have taking their concerns about the unbearable smell from the quarry and recycling plant to a public meeting, and finally 2 peopl have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at a recycling station in Norwich.  

Morrisons have started selling their fresh product in brown paper bags instead of the traditional plastic ones, the 4th largest supermarket estimates the switch would result in 150 million fewer paper bags each year.  The supermarket also encourages customers to bring their own containers in and they will get extra loyalty points if they do.

England is on the verge of incinerating more than it currently recycles for the first time.  The Green Party argue that incinerations are contributing to climate change and that it is currently holding back recycling rates, despite only one incinerator being under construction for this year.  

If we teach kids how to recycle and how to take care of the planet, they will carry it with them into the future and help preserve the earth and it's resources.  This article has compiled together some easy and fun ways to teach kids about recycling.

Starbucks are set to introduce a 5p charge to paper cups across their 950 UK stores, originally trialed in London for 3 months, it showed that 4% of customers started to bring their own recycling cup in.  Starbucks have said they were encouraged by the trial and were excited to roll out the scheme across England. 

This weeks Recycling roundup features stories including discarded laughing gas canisters being littered in areas despite the fact they can be recycled for money, Wirrall council have told residents they have no plans to introduce a food recycling scheme, and finally RECOUP organised collections of trays, cups and PET drinks bottles for recycling.  

The charity RECOUP has joined forces with Norfolk Waste Partnership to develop a campaign to show how clothing can be made from recycled plastic bottles.  Students from Norfolk were asked to get creative and design items of clothing that could be made from polyester which comes from PET bottles, 9 finalists were chosen and were given materials to create their idea. 

When it comes to recycling, contact lenses may not be high up on the list, but with millions of people in the UK wearing contact lenses this equates to a lof of plastic waste.  Valli Opticians has introduced a contact lens recycling scheme across their 14 practices, the lenses are collected and then sent to TerraCycle who sort them into different materials.

Bristol Council have been criticised for their decision top introduce an additional recycling box following a review into the collection strategy.  The result of the report now says that the general waste colletion shall change to every 3 weeks to cut down on the amount going to the incinerator.