The guide contains details of hundreds of recycled products of different materials available to UK consumers. The hard-copy version of the guide was launched in 1995, when it was the first directory of its kind in the UK.
The online searchable database was first launched in 1998. The new upgrade has added hundreds of extra products and made the searchable database easier for both suppliers and buyers to use.
Behaviour
Waste Watch chief executive Barbara Herridge said: “The guide is about encouraging people to change their behaviour. Just putting their things in a recycling bin is not enough – they need to buy recycled too.”
The organisation aims to give people information for free so that everybody can make a difference, whether a big corporate company or a community group, she said.
Paper copies of the guide, which had been distributed to about 500 users, will be completely replaced by the website, which has registered over 7,000 users a month.
The main changes to the website include the removal of the splash page and a more advanced search engine which breaks products down into different sectors. And whereas the old site contained some information from companies that had ceased trading, now companies that enter their details on the site will be contacted after six months and encouraged to update their entries.
Essential
WRAP director of policy Ray Georgeson welcomed the re-launch and commented: “Industry is increasingly realising that there are opportunities here to make use of recycled products. The Recycled Product Guide is important as an essential agent for getting the information to businesses and at WRAP we are committed to working collaboratively with Waste Watch to ensure maximum benefit to business.”
Waste Watch information coordinator Stephen Webb said: “I don't know of another guide that has got such a variety of products, from Astro Turf to Zoo Poo. I am looking at this as stage one. Hopefully now we have got a good reliable site to build on.”
Waste Watch is a charity supported by members, business, local Government and DEFRA and funded by the Landfill Tax Credits Scheme and the National Lottery.
It aims to promote the environmental, economic and social benefits of waste minimisation and recycling.
The Recycled Products Guide can be seen at www.recycledproducts.org.uk/index.htm
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