This week is Recycle Week - a national event to encourage more people to recycle more things more often.
The annual event is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, and over the past decade the UK has recycled 50 billion plastic drinks bottles, which if laid end-to-end, would stretch to the moon and back ten times over. It has also been revealed that during the same time period, recycling schemes across the UK have collected materials such as card, paper, plastic and glass worth £2.4 billion.
WRAP Chief Executive Liz Goodwin said, "As a nation, we've come a long way since we first began to take recycling seriously. This is good news for the environment - it means we're sending less waste to landfill and making better use of the natural materials that go into the products we use every day. It is hugely important for our economy. The UK recycling sector now generates more than £13 billion a year in sales of recycled materials, employs more than 40,000 people and contributes around £3 billion-worth of additional value each year to the UK economy."
She continued, "Given this progress you may be asking whether we still need Recycle Week. The truth is, there's still more we can all do to recycle more things, more often - to capture more of the valuable materials that are collected for recycling in our own home. For example, take the humble plastic bottle - householders are now recycling more than 50% of these and most councils now collect them. This is great news, but it means there's still half ending up in landfill."
Recycle Week runs until 23 June, and has a "recycle at home and away" theme. Ideas and information is available from:
