[date]
WE’VE COME A LONG WAY! – [insert LA / borough name]
JOINS RECYCLE WEEK 10th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Over the past decade, the UK has recycled an astonishing 50 billion plastic drinks bottles – enough to
stretch to the moon and back more than 10 times over!
And this week, [Insert LA / borough name] is throwing its weight behind the 10th anniversary plans
for Recycle Week - the national annual event designed to encourage people to recycle even more
than ever before.
Recycle Week 2013, which takes place from June 17-23, has as its focus recycling ‘at home and
away’. Originally launched as ‘The BIG Recycle’, the annual event has played an important role in
helping to spread messages about recycling to consumers across the UK during a decade which has
seen huge improvements in how much, and what, we recycle.
“As a nation, we’ve come a long way since we first began to take recycling seriously,” said WRAP
chief executive Liz Goodwin. [You may wish to replace this with a quote from, or attribute this to
your own chief exec / council leader.]
“Not only is this good news for the environment as it means we’re sending less to landfill and making
better use of natural resources, it is also hugely important for our economy. The UK recycling sector
now generates more than £13 billion a year in sales, employs more than 40,000 people and
contributes around £3 billion-worth of additional value each year to the UK economy.
“The sector has also increased its sales revenue threefold since 1998, outstripping growth in the
overall economy over the same period of time.
“At the same time it is good news for councils, as recyclable materials can be sold on, providing an
additional source of revenue.”
[Insert details of your own initiative(s) here.]
In the 10 years that Recycle Week has been running, local authority recycling schemes across the UK
have collected materials worth a staggering £2.4 billion.
This includes:
Paper and card worth around £1 billion
Plastic worth around £339 million
Mixed cans worth around £174 million
Mixed glass worth around £153 million
Textiles worth around £124 million
[You may wish to insert your own LA data here]
“The progress we’ve made is due to a huge amount of effort on behalf of individuals, local
authorities, businesses, community groups and charities, many of whom use WRAP’s
www.recyclenow.com website and Recycle Week resources to help them,’ said [name]
“However, one of the reasons that Recycle Week is still around is that there’s more we can all do to
recycle more things, more often – to capture these valuable resources. For example, take the
humble plastic bottle. Householders are now recycling more than 50 per cent of these – great news,
but that means there’s around 50 per cent still ending up in landfill!”
Consumers can find out what they can recycle in their area by using the postcode locator on
www.recyclenow.com or visiting the [insert council name] website at [insert website details].
Recycle Week 2013’s ‘recycling at home and away’ theme covers packaging, metals, plastics, textiles
and food waste. Information and supporting material is available from www.recyclenow.com
including special packs for partners.
(ends)
Notes to Editors
Household recycling has risen from 11% in 2001 to 43% in 2013, and more than half of business
waste is now recycled.
Metal cans are 100% recyclable.
More than 9 billion drinks cans are made in the UK every year – 80% are aluminium.
In one year, a single drink can could be recycled as many as eight times, saving enough energy to
make 160 new cans.
Over 2.5 billion cans are recycled in the UK each year – equivalent to the weight of 18,000 doubledecker buses.
Recycled plastic bottles can be turned into all kinds of things – even fleece jackets! It takes 25
recycled drinks bottles to make a fleece jacket.
An estimated £140m worth of used clothing ends up in landfill every year in the UK
Aerosols and foil are the two materials that the greatest proportion of people throw away due to
lack of knowledge that they are included in their council’s kerbside recycling collection. [note: this
does not include those living in flats]
[You may wish to add or replace some/all of these bullet points with your own data]
For more recycling facts and figures go to
www.recyclenowpartners.org.uk/
www.wrap.org.uk/mediacentre
www.recycle.now.com
[your contact details]