New insights from WRAP’s annual recycling tracker have found that over half the UK population would like to know more about what their recycling gets turned into, and this information has helped shape the theme of this year’s Recycle Week – “Recycling – it’s worth it”.
Some of the key stats from the recycling tracker include:
- 54% of the UK population would like to be told more about what their recycling gets turned back into
- 65% of the UK population cite not being sure about what can be put in the recycling bin as a reason for occasionally putting items in the residual waste bin
- Missed capture remains an issue, with items such as foil, aerosols and plastics most likely to evade the recycling bin
- Younger age groups feel less confident about recycling
- While understanding the importance of food waste recycling and what happens to recycled food once collected has increased, awareness still lags behind dry recycling
- 48% of people state they want to be really good recyclers and take the trouble to do everything right
Recycle Week
Recycle Week, the annual celebration of recycling from WRAP’s Recycle Now campaign, which started yesterday, is aiming to get more people recycling the right things more often, by bringing to life some of the amazing transformations that different materials can take when they are recycled.
Each day of Recycle Week will focus on a different material, with contemporary new animations showcasing what everyday items can be recycled back into; including those that commonly end up in residual waste such as aerosol cans, cleaner and shampoo bottles, and food waste.
Linda Crichton, Head of Resource Management at WRAP, said: “Recycle Week is a great opportunity to remind people why their recycling efforts are worth it. We know from our research that there is still some confusion over certain items, but there is also the appetite to understand more about recycling, and some people want to be really good recyclers, which is really encouraging. We have to get the right messages out there about exactly what can be recycled and the more support we can get, the better! Last year the campaign reached over 10 million people and we want to reach even more this year.
“There’s still time to support Recycle Week, whether you’re a local authority or a business. To help we have lots of free, customisable resources like posters and fliers that can be downloaded from our Resource Library, plus a Partner Resource Pack with readymade posts and tweets for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, as well as other ideas for how you can get involved.”
All of the Recycle Week communications materials, and the Partner Resource Pack, can be downloaded for free on the Recycle Now Resource Library: https://partners.wrap.org.uk/collections/187/