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Recycle Week - Revealing Household Recycling Hotspots

Released on 2 Jun 2008

This year, the Council is supporting Recycle Week (2-6 June 2008), which is about highlighting the extra things we can easily do to recycle more and increase the impact of our recycling efforts.

We will be celebrating Recycle Week by setting up display booths in various locations around the City. Residents can come and visit to get ideas on how to recycle "just one more thing" through kerbside collections and at recycling centres.

The Council booth will be in Templar's Square on Monday and Tuesday (June 2 and 3), Gloucester Green on Wednesday and Thursday (June 4 and 5), and the Town Hall on Friday, June 6.

Figures unveiled today - 2 June 2008 - by Oxford City Council and WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to mark the start of Recycle Week have highlighted a series of 'hotspots' in the home of 'forgotten' items of recyclable household waste.

Frequently forgotten items

Frequently forgotten items include: plastic shampoo and toiletry bottles (32%); plastic cleaning product bottles, such as bleach or disinfectants (31%); and glass jars, such as those for cooking sauces (20%).

Whilst nearly two thirds (62%) of consumers said that they always remembered to recycle items from their kitchen, this falls dramatically to around a third for waste found in other areas of the home, such as the bathroom (36%) and bedroom (34%).

If every household in Oxford recycled one more of a range of common household items, such as aluminium drinks cans, steel food cans, glass cooking sauce jars, plastic milk bottles and glossy magazines every week for a year, the total amount collected could help tackle climate change by saving over 5,000 of CO2 equivalent - the same as taking 1,600 of cars off the road each year.

If every household in England recycled 'one more thing', the total amount collected for recycling could increase by more than three quarters of a million tonnes and could potentially raise the national recycling rate by up to 3%.

Councillor John Tanner, City Executive Board Member for a Cleaner, Greener City says: "I am thrilled to be supporting Recycle Week 2008 but every week should be recycle week.

"If every household in Oxford recycled just one more plastic bottle each week, we'd save 356 tonnes of CO2, the same as taking 113 cars off the road."

Potential to do more

Industry figures reveal that there is real potential to recycle more. For example, UK households use an average of 331 glass bottles and jars each year, yet nearly half (49% or 162 bottles/jars) are not recycled - the equivalent of three a week.

Similarly, UK households use an average of 500 plastic bottles each year, yet nearly three quarters (74% or 370 bottles) are not being recycled - the equivalent of seven bottles each week.

These items are all collected in Oxford City Council's kerbside collection, as well as at community recycling centres around the City.

To find out more about what's happening in your area during Recycle Week or for further information about recycling, visit our Recycle Week page.

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