Wiltshire Council is marking Recycle Week by joining in with a national campaign to save five 'packaging heroes' from the bin and give them a new life through recycling.
Now in its 21st year, Recycle Week, organised by Recycle Now, is the UK's biggest celebration of recycling with activities to increase recycling taking place across the UK - the week runs from October 14th to October 20th.
Latest Recycle Now research shows that nine out of ten people regularly recycle, but nearly eight out of ten of us put one or more of the 'packaging heroes' in general waste when it could have been recycled.
To highlight the plight of the ill-fated packaging heroes, Recycle Now has created a team of characters to bring the campaign to life and is asking everyone to 'Rescue Me - Recycle'.
These 'heroes' are Dee Dee, the deodorant, Rey, the plastic trigger spray, Yogi, the yoghurt pot, Fitz, the perfume bottle, and Hube, the toilet roll tube. The group will feature on recycling in school education packs and on social media. Life-size characters have been produced to highlight the key message and will feature in media throughout Recycle Week.
A week of fun activities with a serious message, Rescue Me - Recycle aims to empower people in Wiltshire to look out for these items missed most often in their weekly fortnightly recycling collection. Wiltshire Council will be encouraging residents to keep them in circulation by recycling.
Cllr Dominic Muns, Cabinet Member for Waste and Environment said "In the last financial year (2023/24), we recycled, reused or composted 43.7% of Wiltshire's household waste. Thanks to your efforts, that is nearly a 4% increase from the previous financial year (40%). To help us achieve our goal of recycling even more of Wiltshire's waste, you can check our website to make sure you are recycling all of the items that can be recycled.
"We are delighted to be supporting the Recycle Week campaign as it highlights some of the common items placed in general waste which could have been recycled. This is a key element of our ongoing Recycling: Let's Sort It campaign. We will collect empty aerosols, yoghurt pots, toilet roll tubes, cleaning spray bottles and cans from your blue-lidded bin or bag. Glass bottles and jars should go in your black box.
"Coinciding with Recycle Week, we are also pleased to be supporting 'Recycle Your Electricals' and their 'Great Cable Challenge' for International E-Waste Day (14 October). Cables contain copper which is one of the most precious materials on our planet and essential to our everyday lives. You can recycle your cables at any Wiltshire Council household recycling centre or through our small electricals kerbside collection service.
"I encourage residents to make the most of the wide variety of recycling services available in Wiltshire to help us to ensure valuable materials can be recaptured, recycled and used again, reducing the need to extract oil, to make plastic, and metal from the Earth."
Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said "We are delighted that Wiltshire Council is supporting Recycle Week. While a light-hearted campaign, recycling is essential to limit the impact of what we buy has on the environment. Keeping these materials circulating means we can reduce emissions linked with our weekly shop. Most people are recycling, and the material we capture has a multitude of uses, so the next step is to ensure everyone captures everything they can. Every aerosol, every trigger spray bottle, every plastic pot, and toilet roll tube. Rescue - recycle!"
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