Big Recycle underway with major national coverage

The minister for recycling Ben Bradshaw is launching the campaign in London today, which will involve a visit to Ealing. In the north of England camera crews from local and national television have been present in Liverpool, Manchester and Newcastle among others.

” Awareness-raising campaigns such as the Big Recycle have an important role in shifting public attitudes “
– Ben Bradshaw, Recycling minister
The campaign – which is organised by the Waste and Resources Action Programme and UK recycling organisations British Glass, Corus, Novelis, Paperchain, Recoup and Valpak, is a television and press advertising campaign designed to encourage people in England to recycle.

Announcing the launch, Mr Bradshaw said: “We need to continue expanding our recycling infrastructure, and encouraging all households and businesses to play their part. Awareness-raising campaigns such as the Big Recycle have an important role in shifting public attitudes.”

Like last year, the Big Recycle will see a week of events taking place across England, Scotland and Wales. Events are organised by local authorities, retailers and community groups.

Positive strides


As part of the launch, new figures from compliance scheme figures have been released showing the positive strides that residents in the UK have made towards recycling.

According to the figures, which have been collected by compliance scheme Valpak's Pack flow project, UK households recycled around a third of all their packaging in 2004. This figure compares to a quarter in 2002.

Approximately 3.5 billion glass bottles and jars, 1 billion plastic bottles, 2 billion aluminium cans and 2.5 billion steel cans were recycled in UK households in 2004. And according to the figures, recycling in UK business is also up, with 66% of the 5.6 million tonnes of packaging used by industry recycled in 2004.

Mr Bradshaw said: “I welcome this new study which show that households and businesses are recycling more than ever before, which is excellent news. There is no doubt that it is becoming easier to recycle in the UK, and that people are becoming increasingly keen to do so.”

Support


The Big Recycle is also supported by Olympic gold medallist Sir Matthew Pinsent, Sarah Beeny of channel 4's property ladder and Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Mr Pinsent said: “I've always been a big believer in recycling and use my local council's doorstep collection service. I don't even have to think about it now – I just do it. If we all realised what a massive difference we could make by recycling I think we would all do it.