Plans for a national recycling week nearing completion

Details of the proposed week – the exact title is still to be finalised – are to be unveiled shortly by a consortium of materials organisations and companies with input from the Waste and Resources Action Programme. While there is thought to be some concern that there will be only a few months to prepare for the week, plans are thought to be sufficiently ahead for the event to run this year rather than waiting for 2005.

Packaging
Masterminding the week are organisations including British Glass, Alupro (aluminium cans), Corus (steel cans), the Paper Federation and Recoup (plastic bottles), who see the week as important to getting the message over to the public to step up the recycling of packaging materials.

WRAP has taken an interest in the idea because the week could happen about a month after it launches its recycling campaign in September. And, the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee is also expected to lend its support to the week although recycling officers will be keen to find out exactly what is involved.

Hurricane
The idea of a National Recycling Week is not new to the UK – the first one was held in 1987, again in mid-October, although the week was overshadowed in south east England by the hurricane of October 16. Since then a few similar week long campaigns were held and other “weeks” have seen the opening of waste and recycling facilities to the public.

Then it was led by Waste Watch under the chairmanship of Jeff Cooper. Mr Cooper, who is now responsible for producer responsibility at the Environment Agency, told letsrecycle.com: “A recycling week is a good idea. It is very important to drive home the recycling message.”

Last year a company, Environmental Business Products, promoted what it called “the first pilot UK National Recycling Week” from 14-21 November 2003. This did not receive substantial acclaim although it attracted support from retailers Tesco, Argos and Ryman as well as metals recycler EMR.

Other organisations to have raised the idea of a national recycling week include Planet Ark – which runs a junk mail campaign – and said last year that it would be running such a week in 2004.