Recycle Week: Let's get real about recycling

Now in its eighteenth year, Recycle Week is the nation's biggest annual celebration of recycling.

This Recycle Week, the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership and organisers, Recycle Now, are 'getting real' about recycling; about where we are, where we want to be and how we're all going to get there, together.

This year's campaign will focus on three common questions that many of us have when it comes to recycling:

• Does my recycling really make a difference?
• One item in the bin can't hurt, can it?
• Recycling is so confusing, isn't it?

Recycling in the UK saves 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year - all these factors reduce greenhouse gas emissions which lead to climate change.

By getting our recycling right we can also have an impact. However, one wrong item in the recycling bin from each of us can make whole lorry loads unrecyclable.

Recycling doesn't have to be confusing - if you're ever in doubt whether or not something can be recycled in your bins at home, leave it out, and then check it out on your district council's website or message the council on social media.

In Lincolnshire, we're introducing separate paper and cardboard collections to improve the quality of our recycling. Residents in Boston, North Kesteven, West Lindsey and now East Lindsey will be well aware of the purple-lidded paper and card recycling bin.

Keeping paper and cardboard separate keeps it clean and dry, meaning it can be recycled at a specialist paper mill and used up to seven more times.

Whereas, if paper and cardboard is mixed in with your other recycling, it can easily become contaminated by small bits of food, by water or other liquids, meaning it can only be recycled once.

Cllr Daniel McNally, chair of the Lincolnshire Waste Partnership, said: "In the districts where we've introduced separate paper and card collections, we've also worked really hard to reduce contamination in the mixed recycling bins. And it's worked; we've seen a vast improvement in the quality of recycling in those districts.

"We're set to roll out separate paper and card collections to households in Lincoln, South Kesteven and South Holland over the next couple of years, but there's steps residents in these areas can take now to be better recyclers.

Make sure you're keeping batteries, electronics and flimsy plastics like bags and films out of your recycling. And leave out anything else you're unsure about until you've checked online.

"Remember, anything that you can't recycle which goes in your general waste bin at home gets turned into electricity at our energy from waste plant in North Hykeham."

Craig Stephens, Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said: "By recycling even better we can have a big impact on our environment. In Lincolnshire it's no different - more and more people are recycling, so the next step is to make sure we get our recycling right. So come on, Lincolnshire, keep up the great work and let's make our recycling better than ever before!"

To find out more about Recycle Week visit www.recyclenow.org.uk/RecycleWeek