Recycling around the home, how do you do it?

People all across the UK including West Berkshire will soon be gearing up to recycle items they’ve probably never even considered before with the help of Recycle Week 2015.

Taking place 22-28 June the Recycle Week theme of ‘recycling around the home’ will help people expand their recycling routine to all rooms in the home. Many households regularly recycle items like plastic milk bottles and glass bottles from the kitchen, but it’s also easy to recycle many other items from the bathroom, living room and even the bedroom!

The bathroom has a whole heap of items that can be recycled such as cardboard toilet roll tubes and toothpaste boxes. If everyone in the UK recycled one toothpaste box, it would save enough energy to run a fridge in over 2,000 homes for a year.

Plastic shampoo and moisturiser bottles can all be accepted for recycling, along with liquid soap, bleach and bathroom cleaner bottles – just remember to remove any trigger top sprays or pump dispenser tops.

The bedroom is home to a variety of recyclable items, tissue boxes, old magazines and deodorant cans are all accepted by West Berkshire Council and Veolia. In fact, if everyone in the UK recycled one aluminium deodorant aerosol, enough energy could be saved to vacuum over 480,000 homes for a year!

In the living room, newspapers, envelopes and cardboard packaging from online orders can be recycled, even air freshener aerosol cans. If everyone in the UK recycled one aluminium air freshener aerosol can, enough energy could be saved to run a fridge for over 91,000 homes for a year.

Although there’s nearly always a strong focus on the kitchen, there are a few items that sometimes get overlooked, such as breakfast cereal, dishwasher tablets and kitchen wrap boxes not to mention washing-up liquid bottles. Remember to look in the cupboard under the sink for plastic bleach and surface cleaner bottles which can also be recycled.

Everything you recycle brings real benefits. It comes back again and again as new stuff, saving resources and helping the environment. Drinks cans from around the home are recycled into new cans which can be back on the shelves in just 8 weeks and plastic bottles can be turned into footy shirts, fleeces and new plastic bottles.

For more information on what can be collected for recycling from the home or to find your nearest bring banks and Household Waste Recycling Centres, use the Recycling Locator from Recycle Now at www.recyclenow.com or visit www.westberks.gov.uk.