Recycle Week 2024: Council joins the national campaign to save recycling from the bin

Monday 14 October 2024

Now in its twenty-first year, Recycle Week (organised by Recycle Now) is the UK’s biggest celebration of recycling, shining a light on the nation’s recycling habits through activities happening across the UK. For Recycle Week 2024, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council joins an urgent crusade to save five packaging heroes from being rubbished and keeping them out of the bin and living the circular life, through recycling.

The latest Recycle Now research shows that while we’re a nation of recyclers - nine out of ten people regularly recycle – nearly eight out of ten of us (79%) put one or more items into the bin that could have been recycled.

To highlight the plight of the five 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.

The condemned containers include Dee Dee the deodorant, Rey the plastic trigger spray, Yogi the yoghurt pot, Fitz the perfume bottle and humble Hube - the toilet roll tube. The group will feature on recycling and refuse lorries in parts of the UK, 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 Mid and East Antrim to look out for the five items missed most often in the weekly recycling collection. Mid and East Antrim Borough Council will be encouraging residents to keep them in circulation by recycling.

Across Mid and East Antrim, we recycle approximately 11,500 tonnes of dry recycling from the kerbside per annum. This is taken to Bryson Recycling where is it processed further. Once material streams are bulked up, they are moved onto a wide range of local processors including Huhtamaki (paper and card), Encirc (glass), Cherry Pipes (plastics) and McKenzies (metals). New products are made from these recycled materials. Council is aiming to increase the Borough’s recycling performance this year and encourage everyone to get behind this campaign.

Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Alderman Beth Adger MBE, said: “Recycling is really worthwhile and important as it means valuable materials can be recaptured - recycled - and used again. It reduces the need to extract resources from the earth including oil (for plastic) or metal - as well as deforesting areas for paper and card. We are delighted to support Recycle Week again this year and to help our residents recycle like heroes.”

Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said “We are delighted that Mid and East Antrim Borough Council is supporting Recycle Week. While a light-hearted campaign, recycling is essential to limit the impact 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, perfume bottle and toilet roll tube. Rescue – recycle!”

If you would like to follow the action on social media and take part in your own rescue missions, please use the hashtag #RescueMeRecycle and #RecycleWeek. Follow on X @recycle_now and Instagram @recyclenow_uk for updates on how you can get involved and make an impact this Recycle Week.