Somerset is being urged to keep up the good work after recycling an extra 3,500 tonnes of key materials during the COVID lockdown.
Ahead of Recycle Week 2020 (21-27 September) Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP) is thanking residents for their commitment to do the right thing – and asking them to keep up their recycling habits.
Weekly kerbside collections of recycling continued in Somerset throughout the lockdown period. April, May and June 2020 saw a big jump in the amount of cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles, food waste and aluminium cans collected in the weekly kerbside collection, compared to 2019 figures.
- Aluminium cans: up 69%, an extra 92 tonnes
- Glass bottles: up 37%, an extra 1,360 tonnes
- Food waste: up 27%, an extra 1,182 tonnes
- Cardboard: up 24%, an extra 650 tonnes
- Plastic bottles up 23%, an extra 172 tonnes
The figures show that Somerset householders continued to recycle throughout the height of lockdown, helping build on the county’s already impressive recycling reputation.
Thousands more people requested extra recycling containers, either getting into the recycling habit for the first time or taking the opportunity to do even more.
Last year SWP recycled 135,000 tonnes through weekly kerbside collections and the county’s 16 recycling sites – saving more than 67,000 tonnes of carbon.
Overall, 90% of SWP recycling stayed in the UK, and 51% stayed in Somerset – including 100% of food and garden waste.
SWP Managing Director, Mickey Green, said: “At such a difficult time it is heartening to see that people continued to take responsibility for doing their bit to protect our environment.
“We always encourage people to reduce their waste and reuse where they can. But when things have to be disposed of, in Somerset recycling is increasingly what most people choose to do.”
Recycling Week is the annual campaign encouraging everyone to recycle more of the right things and is now in its 17th year.
At the end of October, SWP is launching its new Recycle More service in Mendip. It will expand weekly collections to include plastic pots tubs and trays, food and drink cartons, small household batteries and small electrical items.
Through the new service and by inspiring people to recycle, it aims to reduce rubbish by 15% be 2023.
Recycle More is only coming to Mendip in 2020 and will be rolled-out to other parts of the county over the following 18 months. For more detail visit somersetwaste.gov.uk/recycle-more
For information about how to reduce and reuse your waste, visit www.somersetwaste.gov.uk and follow @somersetwaste on Twitter and Facebook.