How to do your bit for Recycle Week 2012

Today marks the start of Recycle Week 2012. Running from the 18th to the 24th of June, the aim of the week is to get Britain recycling!

Recycling plastic bottles

The theme of this year’s recycling campaign is plastic bottles and cans. Here, we take a look at why recycling your plastic bottles and cans can make a difference to Britain.

The facts

  • Each day in the UK we get through a staggering 15 million plastic bottles and 13.5 million drinks cans – only half are ever recycled
  • The Jubilee, The London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games, and Euro 2012 could as much as triple waste in coming months.
  • If all of us in Scotland/England/Wales/ Northern Ireland recycled just one more plastic bottle each during Recycle Week, we’d save enough energy to power over 6000/over 60,000/3,500/over 2000 plasma TVs for a year!
  • Plastic bottles can be recycled into fences, bags, flooring, window frames, fleeces, fibre fillings, or even more bottles
  • Drinks cans are usually recycled back into drinks cans and can be back on the shelf within a couple of months
  • 1 tonne of plastic bottles saves 1.5 tonnes of carbon being released into the atmosphere.
  • It only takes 25-two litre plastic bottles to make an adult-sized fleece.

Can I make a difference?

With recycling points or kerbside collection now widely available throughout the country, recycling plastic bottles and cans has never been easier. Plastic bottles doesn’t just refer to drinks bottles but to shampoo, shower gel, bleach and even bottles used in the garden. Here are some tips to remember when recycling.

  • Before recycling please rinse your bottles out, squash them and put the top back on.
  • Bottle tops can be recycled too (when put back on the bottle).
  • You don’t need to remove the labels as this is done as part of the recycling.
  • 92% of all UK local authorities now offer collection facilities for plastic bottles either from your kerbside collection scheme or at recycling centres

More information

For more information on recycling, Recycling Now Week or what you can do to help our the environment, visit Recycle Now.

Source: RecycleNow
Photography: Steven Depolo @Flickr

Comments for 'How to do your bit for Recycle Week 2012'

  • Eejmini

    environmental consciousness is the key. The children should learn how important it is. 

    The government should introduce a new law to plastic bags and bottles. 
    E.g. 5 p for a plastic bag and 25p for plastic bottle. So we could slow the plastic consumption down. In every single bloody supermarket cashier give me tons of plastic bags for 4 or 5 products. It is insane……………This government should do something useful and logic…

    • Happy Mama

      I think charging for plastic bags is a good idea. Each supermarket should give out 3 reusable cloth bags, then after that you have to remember your own bags.

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