Ards and North Down Borough Council, along with recycling charity WRAP, is encouraging residents to recycle household items they have never considered before as part of the national Recycle Week (22 – 28 June) 2015 campaign.
This year’s Recycle Week theme of ‘recycling around the home’ will help residents expand their recycling routine to all rooms in the home. Many households regularly recycle items like plastic milk bottles from the kitchen, but it’s also easy to recycle many other items from the bathroom, living room and even the bedroom using your blue bin.
In addition, the bathroom has a whole heap of items that can be recycled such as cardboard toilet roll tubes and toothpaste boxes. Research indicates that if everyone in the United Kingdom (UK) recycled one toothpaste box, it would save enough energy to run a fridge in over 2,000 homes for a year.
Plastic shampoo and moisturiser bottles can all be accepted for recycling, along with liquid soap, bleach and bathroom cleaner bottles.
The bedroom is home to a variety of recyclable items – tissue boxes, old magazines and deodorant cans (do not squash) are all accepted in the blue bin. In fact, if everyone in the UK recycled one aluminum deodorant aerosol, enough energy could be saved to vacuum over 480,000 homes for a year.
In the living room, newspapers, catalogues (hard backing removed) and air freshener aerosol cans (do not squash) can be recycled. If everyone in the UK recycled one aluminum air freshener aerosol can, enough energy could be saved to run a fridge for over 91,000 homes for a year.
Although there’s nearly always a strong focus on the kitchen, there are a few items that sometimes get overlooked, such as breakfast cereal, frozen food boxes and dishwasher tablet boxes not to mention washing-up liquid and sauce bottles (rinsed out). Remember to look in the cupboard under the sink for plastic bleach and surface cleaner bottles which can also be recycled. When you are finished with a tin of biscuits or sweets the tin can be recycled too. And finally don’t forget drinks cartons and tin foil and foil trays (please rinse these) can also be recycled in the blue bin.
“During Recycle Week we want to thank everyone for their recycling efforts” said Emma Adair, Recycling Officer, Ards and North Down Borough Council. “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 are encouraging residents to think a little further than the kitchen and recycle items from other rooms in the home.”
Everything you recycle brings real benefits. It comes back again and again as new stuff, saving resources and helping the environment. Drinks cans from around the home are recycled into new cans which can be back on the shelves in just 8 weeks and plastic bottles can be turned into footy shirts, fleeces and new plastic bottles.
For more information on what can be collected for recycling from the home or to find the nearest bring banks and Household Waste Recycling Centre visit:
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