People all across the Somerset will soon be gearing up to recycle items they have probably never considered before with the help of Recycle Week 2015 from 22 to 28 June.
Recycle Week’s theme of “recycling around the home” will help remind people go further to expand their recycling routine to all rooms in the home, saving not just the materials from going to waste in costly, polluting landfill but also all the energy needed to extract and create them.
Many households regularly recycle kitchen items like plastic milk bottles and glass bottles, but may overlook items from the bathroom, living room and even the bedroom.
Easy bathroom recycling includes cardboard toilet roll tubes and toothpaste boxes, and the plastic bottles used for shampoo, moisturiser, liquid soap, bleach and bathroom cleaner – just remember to remove any flip caps or trigger top sprays, and give them a quick rinse.
Bedrooms have plenty to recycle, from tissue boxes and old magazines to deodorant aerosols, while in the living room, newspapers, envelopes and cardboard packaging from online orders can be recycled, as can air freshener aerosol cans.
Back in the kitchen, some items that may get overlooked include the boxes for breakfast cereal, dishwasher tablets and kitchen wrap, and all those plastic bottles in the cupboard under the sink. Again, do give them a quick rinse.
It makes a big difference. If everyone in the UK recycled one more toothpaste box, 2,000 fridges could run for a year on the power saved, while if they recycled one more aluminium deodorant or air freshener, the energy saved could run 91,000 fridges or vacuum 480,000 homes for a year.
Somerset Waste Partnership managing director Steve Read said: “During Recycle Week we want to thank everyone for their recycling efforts.
“What’s currently recycled makes a huge difference, so just imagine what else could be achieved by recycling those items that are sometimes forgotten. We want people to think a little further than the kitchen and recycle items from other rooms in the home.”
Everything you recycle comes back again and again as new stuff, saving resources and helping the environment. Drinks cans can be recycled into new cans and be on the shelves in just eight weeks while plastic bottles can be turned into fleeces and football shirts.
For more information on what can be collected for recycling from the home or to find the nearest bring banks and recycling sites, visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk.
Somerset Waste Partnership is the local authority team managing waste and recycling services for Mendip, Sedgemoor, South Somerset and West Somerset District Councils, Taunton Deane Borough Council and Somerset County Council.