Consumers encouraged to recycle during campaign

WRAP has revealed that its Recycle Week campaign, which celebrates its 10th anniversary next week (17-23 June), has seen local authority recycling schemes across the UK collect materials worth £2.4 billion, including plastic worth around £339 million.

The annual national event to encourage more people to recycle more things more often runs from June 17-23, with a call to consumers to recycle everything they can “at home and away”.

Launched as ‘The BIG Recycle’, WRAP says the annual event has played an important role in helping consumers understand what can and can’t be recycled in a decade which has seen huge changes and improvements to recycling collections and services.

 “As a nation, we’ve come a long way since we first began to take recycling seriously,” said WRAP Chief Executive, Liz Goodwin.

“This 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 also 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.

“The sector has also increased its sales revenue threefold since 1998, outstripping growth in the overall economy over the same period of time.”

Resource Management Minister, Lord de Mauley, said: “Reusing and recycling products and materials will also open up new avenues for UK businesses in growing domestic and export markets.”

High profile partners supporting Recycling Week include Tesco, Coca-Cola and The Co-Operative Food.