Going Green: Recycling Reaches all Time High

The new figures have been released to coincide with 'the BIG recycle' – a week-long recycling campaign that begins on Monday. They reveal:

• UK households recycled around a third of all their packaging in 2004 – an increase from around a quarter in 2002.
• Approximately 3.5 billion glass bottles and jars, 1 billion plastic bottles, 2 billion aluminium cans and 2.5 billion steel cans were recycled by UK households in 2004. This is a total weight, including cardboard containers, of 1,253,000 tonnes of material.
• Recycling in UK business (offices and industry) is also up. In 2004, industry used 5.6 million tonnes of packaging – 66 per cent of which was recycled. This is an increase of seven per cent on 2002.
• Almost half of all the packaging used in the UK is recycled.
• Recycling is getting more convenient. Almost every council in the UK now provides some form of service for doorstep collection of recyclable or compostable materials.
• Nine out of 10 people regard recycling as an important thing to do, and 50 per cent are classed as committed recyclers.**

The new figures are from PackFlow, a seven-month project led by producer responsibility scheme Valpak with the involvement of materials organisations British Glass, Corus, Alupro and Recoup, and WRAP (the Waste & Resources Action Programme). The project surveyed local authorities across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, to get a comprehensive national picture of packaging recycling rates.

Now in its second year, 'the BIG recycle' is part of Recycle Now, a major TV and press advertising campaign designed to encourage people in England to recycle 'more stuff, more often'. It will see events taking place across England, Scotland and Wales, organised by local authorities, retailers and community groups to encourage the public to recycle more household waste.

Four-times Olympic champion Sir Matthew Pinsent, and Sarah Beeny, presenter of Channel 4's 'Property Ladder' are both backing the campaign. In addition, Paralympic champion Tanni Grey-Thompson and former Olympic athlete Roger Black(from Recycle for Hampshire) are supporting the BIG recycle.

Matthew Pinsent said: "I've always been a big believer in recycling and use my local council’s doorstep collection service. I don’t even have to think about it now - I just do it. If we all realised what a massive difference we could make by recycling used packaging, such as food and drinks cans, glass and plastic bottles and jars, I think we would all do it."

'the BIG recycle' is jointly organised and funded by WRAP - a UK programme established to promote resource efficiency - in partnership with the leading materials recycling organisations British Glass, Corus, Novelis, PaperChain, the Corrugated Packaging Industry, Recoup and Valpak.

Ben Bradshaw, Parliamentary Secretary for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said: "I welcome this new study which shows that households and businesses are recycling more than ever before, which is excellent news. There is no doubt that it is becoming easier to recycle in the UK, and that people are becoming increasingly keen to do so.

"However, there is still room for improvement. The study does indicate that meeting European 2008 packaging waste targets will be challenging. We need to continue expanding our recycling infrastructure, and encouraging all households and businesses to play their part. Awareness-raising campaigns such as 'the BIG recycle' have an important role in shifting public attitudes."

Jennie Price, Chief Executive Officer of WRAP, said: "Recycling is one of the easiest ways for people to reduce their personal environmental impact, so this week would be a great time to recycle just one extra bottle, can or newspaper.

"The BIG recycle is all about letting people know what, where and how to recycle so they can see for themselves just how easy it is to recycle more stuff more often."