Recycle Week 2014 kicks off

Recycle Week 2014 kicks off today (June 16) with a number of events taking place up and down the UK aimed at encouraging people to cut waste and recycle more.

The 11th annual recycling awareness week runs until Sunday June 22 and will this year operate under the theme Recycling at Home and Away to promote recycling in public spaces a theme that it has focused on in past years.

Recycle Week is coordinated and funded by the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), which provides information and promotional resources for councils and businesses to set up local events.

Wales

Recycle for Wales is supporting the 2014 event by trying to encourage people to make the most of any one of the 1,041 public recycling bins funded by the Welsh Government during the last 12 months.

Andrew Osborne from Recycle for Wales said: Wales has many beautiful places to visit and a large number provide recycling bins for you to use. However, some places such as beaches may not have recycling bins so we recommend you take your recycling home to avoid creating rubbish in the places we love the most.

He added: Try to avoid creating unnecessary waste when you are outside by putting your picnic food in reusable, airtight plastic containers instead of wrapping it in aluminium foil or cling film that you will have to throw away, and use reusable plastic bottles for drinks.

Plastics

In Nottinghamshire, the county councils waste contractor Veolia is using the week to promote plastic bottle reuse or recycling.

With the World Cup in full swing, Wimbledon tennis around the corner and the promise of warm weather, Veolia is hoping this will be bumper year for plastic bottle collections and will be explaining the plastics recycling process to residents.

According to Veolia, if everyone in the UK recycled just one extra plastic bottle during Recycle Week, this would save enough energy to power over 71,000 plasma screen TVs for a year.

Kevin Parker, regional communications manager for Veolia said: Recycling plastic bottles is now easier than ever, so let’s recycle as many of them as we can so they can be turned into something new.

Paint

Also supporting Recycling Week 2014 is Community RePaint, which runs more than 70 schemes to collect unwanted, surplus paint for redistribution to those in need while improving the appearance of places across the UK.

In Bradford, the council, the National Media Museum, artists and volunteers have been working with paint from the local Community RePaint scheme to decorate seven passageways in the citys Jacobs Well subways with images of local landmarks and characters.

Community RePaint network manager, Martin Pearse, said that after positive feedback, the volunteers now plan to paint Bradford railway station.

He commented: By supporting projects like this, Community RePaint can help to bring a splash of colour to communities across the country whilst encouraging the re-use of a valuable resource.

Viridor

This year, 30 of waste management firm Viridors Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) in Somerset, West Sussex, Monmouthshire and Torfaen will be offering recyclers of old and broken small waste electrical items (WEEE) a chance to win 100.

Tanya Reed, Viridor communications manager, said: A typical domestic iron contains enough steel to make 13 food cans, so by recycling broken or unwanted items you are ensuring that valuable natural materials are conserved and not wasted and help the environment.

Oxfordshire

In Cherwell, Oxfordshire, meanwhile, the district council will be holding a promotional roadshow tour around Banbury, Bicester and Kidlington during the week to encourage residents to recycle One More Thing.

Members of Cherwell District Councils green team will visit supermarkets in each of the three locations to hand out recycling goodies and tips to coincide with National Recycling Week which runs from Monday, 16 June.

The team will also promote its World Cup competition to win one of ten free blue bins and remind people which items commonly associated with football get-togethers can be recycled and where.

They will be handing out free food caddies and liners to residents who pledge to back the campaign as well as other freebies including recycling fridge magnets and pencils made from denim.

Portsmouth

On the south coast, Portsmouth city council is launching a competition to coincide with Recycle Week 2014 giving residents the chance to Bin It To Win It, aiming to encourage people to recycle their glass and textiles at bring banks around the city.

Those entering the competition can win 10 Love2Shop vouchers if they are seen by recycling officers recycling their glass and textiles at the citys bring banks.

Paul Fielding, assistant head of environment and transport at Portsmouth city council said: By raising awareness of recycling glass and textiles in local bring banks, we also hope to help residents identify where their nearest bring bank is and encourage this behaviour more often.