• Check before you chuck to increase recycling
• Thirty per cent of us are confused about what we can recycle
• Figures released today marks the start of Recycle Week

Around 30% of us are still confused about what can be recycled, according to recycling campaign, Recycle Now.

The national campaign is running a targeted week of activities from 22nd-28th June, to help clear up confusion and get stuff out of the rubbish bin and into the recycling bin!

Marcus Gover, Director at WRAP, the charity that manages Recycle Now said: "We're recycling much more than we used to, but many people still don't realise that there are lots of items around the home that can be recycled.

"So this year's Recycle Week is looking at the whole house as opposed to just the kitchen, so people feel more confident about what they can and can't recycle in every room."

A new survey of 2,000 people from Recycle Now looked at why people recycle and what areas of the home we need to get better at recycling in. One of the rooms that has a lot of easily recyclable products in, is the bathroom. But while nine out of ten respondents recycle in the kitchen, only half regularly recycle in the bathroom. 

The items which regularly go into the rubbish bin instead of being recycled are the cardboard toilet roll tube, with 25% putting it in the rubbish bin, closely followed by shampoo and shower gel bottles with 24%, aerosols (21%) and cleaning product bottles (19%).  

The good news is that these can be recycled. One easy way to make sure these go in the recycle bin instead of the rubbish bin is if you have space to add a small recycling bin upstairs, either in the bathroom or bedroom.

There's no need to be confused, Recycle Now says ?check before you chuck' by using its relaunched Recycling Locator on www.recyclenow.com which tells you what you can recycle locally. By entering your postcode and clicking a button, the Recycling Locator will also locate the nearest recycling banks and recycling centres. 

Other rooms in the home likely to be overlooked when it comes to recycling are the bedroom and the living area. If just one aluminium air freshener aerosol is recycled by everyone in the UK; enough energy could be saved to vacuum over 876,000 homes for a year. 

With many of us so busy, why should we make the time to recycle more around the home? Well the survey found the most common reasons people recycle is because it's the right thing to do and it's good for the environment. So do your bit for the environment and feel good.

Karen Cannard, a married mother of two, challenges householders to reduce their general waste through her recycling blog The Rubbish Diet. She comments on today's survey, "There's a role for everybody when it comes to recycling, especially around the home - every item can make a big difference.

Recycle Now has lots of simple tips and advice on what and how to recycle at www.recyclenow.com

ENDS

» Publication Date: 22/06/2015

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