Recycle Week: ‘Step It Up’ in the fight against Climate Change!

It's Recycle Week, and Recycle Now are asking us all to 'Step It Up' in the fight against climate change and take action to protect our environment through even better recycling habits.

Latest research from Recycle Now reveals that almost 9 out of 10 people now recycle.

However, 55% of households put items in the general rubbish bin that can be recycled; including foil, aerosols, and plastic toiletry bottles (such as shampoo and conditioner bottles), plastic trays, cleaning and bleach bottles. This is where we need to 'Step It Up'. We can all help fight climate change by recycling because recycling currently saves 18 million tonnes of CO2 every year, which is the same as taking 12 million cars off the road.

Every year Recycle Week unites retailers, brands, waste management companies, trade associations, national & local governments and the media to focus on how recycling can play a part in limiting the pressure we put on the planet through our use of natural resources.

Recycle Now and Bedford Borough Council are here to help! There are some simple things that we can all do to make our recycling even better.

Top tips for recycling in Bedford Borough:

• Recycle more of these items: empty aerosols, shampoo and skincare plastic bottles from the bathroom, detergent bottles, magazines.
• Make sure these never go in the orange lidded recycling bin: black sacks, food waste, glass, nappies, hard plastics such as toys, polystyrene.
• Make sure you take glass bottles and jars to your local mini recycling site. A full list is available www.bedford.gov.uk/MiniRecyclingSites
• Crush, squish, stomp on, tear up and make smaller anything you can to fit more into your recycling bin - the more space you save, the more recycling you can fit in.

If you're at all unsure about how to recycle a specific item, check online at www.bedford.gov.uk or pop your postcode into Recycle Now's Recycling Locator at https://www.recyclenow.com/local-recycling.

To find out more about Recycle Week, and to find out what you can and can't recycle where you live, visit www.recyclenow.org.uk/RecycleWeek.

Councillor Charles Royden, Portfolio Holder for Environment, said: "Lots of us already recycle and my thanks go to local residents who take the time to separate their waste into recyclable and not, keeping as much as possible out of their black bin. Recycle Week is a great reminder of why recycling is so important- it's a small but powerful habit. Recycling just one drink can could save enough energy to power a TV for four hours. Around 95% less energy is used to make products from recycled materials than using raw materials. The more we can all recycle, the more we can all save the planet's natural resources and reduce carbon emissions."