For many of us recycling has become second nature and a part of our daily routine, but there is still more we can do to live sustainably.
Initiatives such as Recycle Week in the UK, which celebrated its 10th anniversary last week, is just one of a number of schemes which is helping to change attitudes to recycling by promoting its benefits.
Held annually, Recycle Week aims to encourage people to recycle more frequently, and over the last ten years recycling has become a bigger part of British society than it has ever been before. Figures reported by Recycle Now, organisers of Recycle Week, show that over £174 million worth of cans have been collected through local authority recycling schemes in the last decade and over £3 billion worth of cans are now recycled in the UK each year.
Over the last ten years there have been a series of positive changes in recycling in the UK and the fact that recycling has now become part of the daily routine for most British people is particularly significant. Figures from Recycle Now reveal that household recycling has risen from 11 per cent in 2001 to 43% in 2013, and more than half of business waste is now recycled.
Programmes designed to change attitudes towards recycling have played a crucial role in helping shape behaviour and drive capture rates up. BCME fund two programmes, MetalMatters and Every Can Counts, which are designed to get people to actively recycle. MetalMatters works with local authorities across the UK to educate householders about metal packaging whilst Every Can Counts, a partnership between BCME and the recycling industry in the UK, France and Austria, encourages businesses and people on the go to recycle more drinks cans.
By making recycling accessible and easy, both in and outside of the home, we can continue to build on the developments already seen in the in recycling sector and look to another successful ten years ahead.
Canned Comment 