Mr Miliband joined former footballer Graeme le Saux at ECT Recycling's depot in Ealing, West London, to tour the plant and pledge his support for the campaign.
Organised by the Waste and Resources Action Programme – alongside UK recycling organisations British Glass, Corus, Novelis, PaperChain and Recoup – the Big Recycle aims to encourage people in England to recycle more.
 Pictured at the launch of the Big Recycle are (l-r), Andy Bond, ECT Recycling; Jennie Price, chief executive WRAP; footballer Graeme le Saux; and environment secretary David Miliband. |
An estimated 410 million cans and bottles are expected to accumulate during the World Cup, so this year's programme was given a football theme and timed to coincide with the run-up to the tournament.
Hundreds of customised recycling footballs and scarves were sent to local councils, football clubs, material reprocessors and retailers all over the country as part of the nationwide drive to spread awareness.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Miliband said: “The Big Recycle is an easy way to highlight to people that recycling can make a difference and that recycling is easy. I applaud the drive to make sure that we use the World Cup month to make sure that those 400 million beer cans and beer bottles find their way back into the recycling system.”
Every citizen
The environment secretary added that he hoped to see a full range of waste being collected from households and that every citizen would contribute to the recycling process. “We have got to make sure that not just at national level but at local level too we make it easy for people to recycle because I think that British people have the right values but just need easy ways to put it into practice.”
” We have got to make sure that not just at national level but at local level too we make it easy for people to recycle “
– David Miliband, secretary of state for the environment
And, he said that he hoped Defra can work very closely with local authorities right around the country, “because it is by people banding together in their local communities that we are going to see the biggest change”.
Jennie Price, chief executive of WRAP, said: “Although people think that recycling is a really good idea they just need to be reminded. We're still only at half the recycling rate of countries like Germany and there's no reason we can't reach that sort of level.
“We've chosen to launch the campaign on world environment day, to show that our campaign is bigger than just rubbish.”
Mrs Price stressed the local emphasis of the Big Recycle, which has encouraged 100 local authorities around the country to get involved. She said: “most people will see something in their local area which is really important.”
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The Big Recycle organisers also managed to get England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson to voice his support for the campaign with him urging football fans to give a “red card to waste”.
Mr Eriksson told the Big Recycle: “Millions of our fans will be cheering on England and I would urge our supporters to make this world cup a winner for the team and environment by recycling all their extra cans, bottles and newspapers as they support the team from home.”
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