Recycle Week 2008 with Gail Porter

A survey done for Recycle Week reveals the top five items people say they don’t recycle are:

• Aerosol containers for deodorant, air freshener or polish etc (62%)
• Biscuit and sweet tins (53%)
• Plastic shampoo and toiletry bottles (32%)
• Plastic cleaning product bottles, such as bleach or disinfectants (31%)
• Glass jars, such as those for cooking sauces (20%)
  

Whilst nearly two thirds (62%) of consumers said that they always remembered to recycle items from their kitchen, this falls dramatically to around a third for waste found in other areas of the home, such as the bathroom (36%) and bedroom (34%).

The research also showed that 59% of people focused on recycling cans, plastic drinks bottles, glass bottles, paper and card.  Over 26 per cent were unaware that items such as aerosols, plastic detergent bottles, magazines and biscuit and sweet tins could often be recycled.

This year Recycle Week is about highlighting the extra things we can easily do to recycle more and increase the impact of our recycling efforts.

If every household in England recycled ‘one more thing’, the total amount collected for recycling could increase by more than three quarters of a million tonnes and could potentially raise the national recycling rate by up to 3%.