Come to the rescue this Recycle Week

We are delighted to join this year’s Recycle Week, 14 to 20 October, to celebrate the efforts of people in Essex and help save five packaging heroes from the rubbish bin. Now in its twenty-first year, Recycle Week, organised by Recycle Now, is the UK’s biggest celebration of recycling, shining a light on the nation’s recycling habits through activities happening across the UK.  

The latest Recycle Now research shows that while we’re a nation of recyclers - nine out of ten people regularly recycle – nearly eight out of ten of us (79%) put one or more items into the bin that could have been recycled.   

For Recycle Week 2024, we are supporting an urgent crusade to save five packaging heroes from being rubbished and keeping them out of the bin and living the circular life, through recycling.   

To highlight the struggles of the five ill-fated packaging heroes, Recycle Now has created a team of characters to bring the campaign to life and is asking everyone to Rescue Me – Recycle. The condemned characters include Dee Dee the deodorant, Rey the plastic trigger spray, Yogi the yoghurt pot, Fitz the perfume bottle and humble Hube - the toilet roll tube.  

Recycle Now aims to empower people in Essex to look out for the five items missed most often in the weekly recycling collection. We are proud to support Recycle Week across our social media, newsletter, and website by raising awareness of the avenues through which residents can reduce household waste. The recent rollout of the Podback scheme across recycling centres in Essex and our nifty waste search function are just some of the ways we aim to help rescue recyclable items from landfill. 

From Recycle Week and beyond, Essex residents can be on the lookout for these domestic heroes in need of saving. We encourage residents to identify where these commonly discarded items or being lost. Perhaps Dee Dee the deodorant and Hube the toilet roll tube are going into a single bathroom bin, or Yogi the yogurt pot is not getting a clean after lunch - missing out in their correct destination. Explore the many ideas we have on our website to help you reuse, repair, and recycle your household items.

Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said “We are delighted that Love Essex is supporting Recycle Week. While a light-hearted campaign, recycling is essential to limit the impact what we buy has on the environment. Keeping these materials circulating means we can reduce emissions linked with our weekly shop. Most people are recycling, and the material we capture has a multitude of uses, so the next step is to ensure everyone captures everything they can. Every aerosol, every trigger spray bottle, every plastic pot, perfume bottle and toilet roll tube. Rescue – recycle!”  

If you would like to follow the action on social media and take part in your own rescue missions, please use the hashtag #RescueMeRecycle and #RecycleWeek. Follow Recycle Now on X - @recycle_now and Instagram - @recyclenow_uk for updates on how you can get involved and make an impact this Recycle Week.