Recycle Week 2024: Chichester District Council's Business Waste & Recycling Service joins the national campaign to save recycling from the bin

Chichester District Council's Business Waste & Recycling Service is delighted to join this year's Recycle Week (14 - 20 October) to celebrate the efforts of its customers and help save five packaging heroes from the rubbish bin.

Now in its twenty-first year, Recycle Week (organised by Recycle Now (opens new window)) is the UK's biggest celebration of recycling, shining a light on the nation's recycling habits through activities happening across the UK.For Recycle Week 2024, the Business Waste & Recycling Service joins 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.

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.

To highlight the plight 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 containers 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. The group will feature on recycling and refuse lorries in parts of the UK, in school education packs and on social media. Life-size characters have been produced to highlight the key message and will feature in media throughout Recycle Week.

A week of fun activities with a serious message, Rescue Me - Recycle aims to empower people to look out for the five items missed most often in recycling collections. The Business Waste & Recycling Service will be encouraging its customers to keep them in circulation by recycling.

Amie Huggett, Business Manager for the Business Waste & Recycling Service, said "recycling is important as it means valuable materials can be recaptured - recycled - and used again. We are delighted to support Recycle Week and help our customers recycle as much as possible. By using our recycling service, our customers can recycle a whole range of items, including glass, all in one bin with no need to separate.  It's an easy, sustainable and cost-effective solution for your business.  Once collected, we take the recycling to a materials recycling facility where it is sorted using a combination of advanced mechanical sorting techniques. The sorted materials are then reprocessed into new products."

Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said "We are delighted that Chichester District Council's Business Waste & Recycling Service 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 hashtags #RescueMeRecycle and #RecycleWeek. Follow on X@recycle_now (opens new window) and the Instagram Recycle Now UK account (opens new window) for updates on how you can get involved and make an impact this Recycle Week.