Recycling as much as possible comes naturally to most of us nowadays since the Household Waste Recycling Act came into force back in October 2003. The Act forced local authorities to provide households in England with a separate recycling collection, with Wales following shortly afterwards. We’ve come a long way since then, improving our recycling from a mere 12% to 44%, but there’s still more to do. Of course, some find recycling a loathsome task, having to house extra bins, and this is exactly why we need Recycle Week to remind us all of why we do it. The Recycle Week celebration also aims to encourage us to hone our recycling skills and motivate those who aren’t quite there yet to join the recycling revolution, including individuals, retailers and businesses.
Recycle Awareness Week is the nation’s annual celebration of recycling. It started back in 2003, and this year the event takes place between 19th September and 25th September.
This year’s Recycling Week theme is ‘Let’s Get Real about Recycling’, which focuses on challenging perceptions and myths around recycling and getting us to be better at recycling. Of course, we’ve all done it after a hard day’s work; we didn’t bother to rinse out a carton or perhaps throw something in the recycling without checking to see if it could be recycled. The reality is that these errors spoil the load, making whole batches unrecyclable. So, it’s not just about recycling as much as we can; it’s about doing it properly too!
In a nutshell, it takes less energy and emissions to recycle than to produce things from scratch. Recycling saves 18 million tonnes of CO2 in a year in the UK. And through recycling, we conserve energy, reduce air and water pollution, reduce greenhouse gases and preserve natural resources, all of which help to protect our fragile environment. The more we recycle the right things correctly, the more our planet is protected. For additional information, visit WRAP.
It’s easy to get involved in the Recycle Awareness Week campaign by recycling more of the right thing and doing it more often. You can also follow Recycle Now’s social media channels using #RecycleWeek!
Recycling can be somewhat of a minefield, especially with different plastics, where a science degree in plastics would come in helpful! Recycle Now makes it super easy with their handy recycle search option. For example, you can search for a product to recycle, such as plastic bottles and Recycle Now will tell you where and how you can recycle it and which types of plastic bottles can be recycled, making it super easy to recycle the right things.
And don’t think you can’t recycle something significant such as a bicycle or other sports equipment. Search for it on Recycle Now’s site, and you’ll find options, including charities you can donate them. And if you have an item that doesn’t come up in Recycle Now’s search, plenty of other places will recycle sports equipment, including Lord’s Taverners, which has hubs across the country and give sports equipment access to young people across the world.
And don’t forget clothing you may not need anymore, especially children’s clothing that they grow out of quickly. Donating and recycling unwanted clothing to charity can help many disadvantaged people, especially if you have unwanted outdoor clothing that could benefit the homeless during winter. Shelter and The Salvation Army have hubs around the country where you can donate and recycle goods and clothing to support the homeless and families in need.
Of course, you can go one step further in your recycling journey by choosing to buy from ethical retailers and companies that use plastic-free, eco packaging that’s recyclable or, even better, comes from recycled sources. Ethical companies put the planet before profit, so by us being selective and making better choices, our beautiful world benefits.
Indeed, when you purchase from Balmy Fox, you are choosing an ethical brand as our entire ethos lies in delivering ethically sourced, natural and organic skincare. We don’t use plastics or chemicals in our products or packaging, which is 100% recyclable, with 80% of the card used coming from recycled sources. For example, take the super convenient handy tins we use for our balms and creams. After use, they can be cleaned and reused repeatedly for storing small items such as paper clips, hair bands or screws and nails. And when these tins do reach the end of their life, they’re entirely recyclable and can be turned into something else that’s useful!
Recycling is our future; it reduces the need to extract, grow and harvest new materials, meaning fewer forests and natural habitats are destroyed. This prevents wild animals from being displaced or harmed and encourages insects and wildlife to flourish. If we all recycle correctly, as much as possible, our beautiful, natural world being a better place we can be proud of doesn’t have to be a dream!
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