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Recycle Week: This year Wakefield Council is ‘Stepping It Up’ in the fight against Climate Change

21 September 2021

Wakefield Council and Recycle Now are asking residents to ‘Step It Up’ in the fight against climate change and take action to protect our environment through even better recycling habits during Recycle Week (20-26 September).

 

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, such as plastic bottles, glass jars and aerosols.

 

This, say Recycle Now and the Council, is where people need to ‘Step It Up’. Everyone can 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.

 

Wakefield Council are here to help. There are some simple things that everyone can do to make recycling even better.

Top tips for recycling:

  • Recycle more of these items – clean glass bottles and jars, clean plastic bottles, empty aerosols and clean foil, paper and cardboard and clean drinks and food tins.
  • Make sure these never go in the recycling bin: rubbish, dirty items as well as electricals, batteries, gas canisters and mobile phones, which can be taken to your nearest HWRC.

Cllr Jack Hemingway, Wakefield Council’s Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, said: “This year we’re focussed on how recycling can help fight climate change and how by recycling better we can have a bigger impact on our environment. Here across the Wakefield district it’s no different – more and more of us are recycling, so the next step is to make sure we get our recycling right every time. So come on, keep up the great work and let’s make our recycling better than ever before!”

This week Material Resources are also launching their Recycle Your Electricals campaign “HypnoCat” a pink fluffy cat on a mission to hypnotise residents into recycling their small old electricals. The campaign has been launched as small old electricals are one of the fastest growing waste streams in the UK and in the world.

  • 155,00 tonnes of waste electricals are being lost through being thrown away in the UK.
  • The total number of cables hoarded in UK homes (140 million) could circle the earth more than five times
  • UK householders are hoarding 527 million small electrical items

 

Renewi’s Education Team, working in partnership with the Council, will be at markets across the district next week, collecting unwanted small electrical items for recycling.

So if anyone has items with a battery, charger or plug that fit in a shopping bag, why not come and drop it off with the team, and ask questions about recycling and rubbish at the same time?

  • Monday 20 September at Castleford Market
  • Wednesday 22 September at Pontefract Market
  • Friday 24 September at Ossett Market

 

Anyone who is unsure about how to recycle a specific item, remember that Recycle Now’s Recycling Locator can show exactly what needs to go in the recycling bin where they live – just pop in the postcode – Local recycling | Recycle Now

 

To find out more about Recycle Week, and to find out what can and can’t be recycled where people live, visit www.recyclenow.org.uk/RecycleWeek

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page last updated :
5th March 2024