Global Recycling Day - how you can play your part locally

Every year, billions of tons of natural resources are used - but most of these are not endless. At some point they are going to run out. That’s why we must all think about what we throw away.

Recycling is a key part of helping to protect our natural resources and it helps in the fight against climate change. Each year recycling saves over 700 million tonnes in CO₂ emissions and this is expected to increase to 1 billion tons by 2030.

Did you know, for example, that there are enough plastic bottles discarded over a year to go around the planet four times?

Also:

• Recycling a single aluminium can will save enough energy to power a TV for up to three hours or an iPod for up to twenty hours.
• Recycling everything you could in your recycling bins could power a TV for six months.
• Recycling a single glass bottle will save enough energy to power a laptop for half an hour.
• Recycling a single plastic bottle will save enough energy to power a lightbulb for three hours or more.
• Recycling five plastic bottles creates enough insulating fibre to fill a ski jacket.
• It takes 70% less energy to recycle paper than it does to make it new from raw materials.

Waste electrical and electronic equipment is the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, but around 25% of that could be repaired and reused. Every month there is a Fixit Café in The Hub on Skinnergate (in Quaker House) and Earth Warriors on Skinnergate take broken electronic equipment and it is taken away to be fixed and reused.

On the Recycle Right pages of our  website you can find out more about recycling right and there are also some primary school resources – including videos.

The official Global Recycling Day website also has resources for schools and community groups: https://www.globalrecyclingday.com/resources/