Recycling: More must be done to promote the re-use of household items, poll finds
There is room for improvement in how much we recycle but it takes effort from manufacturers and consumers to make a difference.
Monday 25 September 2017 06:24, UK
More than a quarter of people (26%) in the UK do not recognise the direct benefits of recycling, according to a survey.
The statistics from national recycling campaign Recycle Now reveal that more than half the UK population (54%) wants to find out more about what their recycling gets used for.
Nearly two thirds (64%) agree that their recycled items have a value and can be sold to make new products.
Linda Crichton, head of the Recycle Now Campaign, told Sky News: "We know that a lot of people associate recycling with the kitchen, packaging and food waste that they produce in the kitchen but tend not to think about other rooms in the home.
"The bathroom is a key room: shampoo bottles, bathroom cleaning products bottles - they can all be recycled."
Currently in the UK, 44% of plastic bottles do not get recycled. Some of them, along with plastic bags and food packaging, will inevitably end up in the ocean.
It's estimated that eight million tonnes of plastic gets dumped into our rivers, seas and oceans every year. If things continue at this rate, by 2050 there will be more plastic than fish in our waters.
Recycling is one way to buck that trend. But experts at the Viridor recycling plant in Rochester say different waste management policies across the UK make things tricky for consumers.
Jeremy Blake, head of polymer recycling at Viridor, told Sky News: "Local authorities all have different collection polices, those collection policies are then going through to facilities like this.
"There are different levels of sophistication in facilities needed to support those (different policies).
"So it's not one size fits all across the country."
For Clare Searing, who lives in Northampton, recycling is a family activity.
She encourages her two children to share her commitment to recycling, and she wishes others would do the same.
"If everyone else manages to recycle to same as I recycle, then that actually can have a huge impact," Mrs Searing told Sky News.
"I think there's a real danger that, if people think that it's just them on their own, and have that attitude that them on their own isn't going to make a difference, that's where the problems start to arise."
Today marks the beginning of the UK's Recycle Week and, when it comes to recycling, there is clearly still room for improvement.
But it takes effort from both manufacturers and consumers to make a long-lasting difference.
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