Go Green with GreenJinn: Recycle Week 2021

Did you know that this week is Recycle Week? ♻️

Even though the name might sound pretty obvious, you might be asking yourself, “What is Recycle Week?” or “What do I need to know about Recycle Week?”

Recycle Week is Recycle Now’s annual event to celebrate recycling across the nation. This is its 18th year running! Retailers, brands, governments, waste management companies and trade associations come together to encourage the public to recycle more often and more accurately. In 2020, Recycle Week was proven to change people’s behaviour with 92% of people finding it motivating and 89% changing their recycling habits as a result of it (Recycle Now).

The theme of this year’s Recycle Week is: Step It Up this Recycle Week. With increasing environmental concerns, we all need to do our part to tackle the climate crisis. Recycling can save us 18 million tonnes of CO2 per year, which is the same as removing 12 million cars from the road (Recycle Now). By Stepping It Up this Recycle Week, we can all make a difference to the climate crisis 🌍

Why do we need to take action?

By now, most of us are probably already aware of climate change, environmental concerns and tackling the climate crisis. However, these important figures provide a bit more insight into this and put into perspective how important it is that we take action now.

In the UK, plastic packaging placed on the market totals 2.4 million tonnes and accounts for 70% of our plastic waste. Flexible plastic accounts for 25% of consumer packaging but only 6% is recycled. (WRAP)

Every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, this is ⅓ of all of the food produced for human consumption. In addition, 70% of freshwater is used for agriculture and 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions are created by global food production. (WRAP)

Global apparel production and consumption continues to rise and the demand for raw materials is expected to triple by 2050. An estimated £140m worth of clothing is sent to UK landfills each year. (WRAP)

How can we all get involved?

Recycle more!

While most of us probably already recycle when and where we can, we should all make more of an effort to ensure that we recycle more often and properly. Read below for some recycling secret tips on this!

Encourage others to recycle

We can spread positive change by encouraging people in our communities such as friends, family, colleagues to recycle more if they don’t already do so. The more we collectively recycle, the better!

Find alternative ways to recycle

Instead of throwing things away, why not find ways to reuse packaging and other items for crafts or household uses? You could use your ice lolly sticks as name tags to identify your different seedlings & plants or you could even keep them to make something fun and creative for the kids! 🌱 🎨

Buy products that are recycling friendly & sustainable

Buying more products that are recyclable and sustainable will make it easier for you to recycle and do good for the planet. If you’re looking for some recommendations or inspiration, head to the GreenJinn App for some sustainable options. We do our best to make sure that the products in app and the companies we work with follow one of our key company values – sustainability.

Recycling Secrets

While we can do all of the above, there may be some recycling secrets that you don’t yet know about! Did you know that you can do the following?

• You can recycle elastic rubber bands by popping them in postboxes as posties will reuse them!
• You may have seen this in adverts but you can now recycle soft plastics like crisp packets and bread bags at Co-op.
• Why not upcycle? We know a lot of people got into this during lockdown but why not give something a second life? Just a lick of paint can give furniture a completely new lease of life!
• When products have a packaging coloured wrap (think lucozade bottles), remember to take the wraps off. Unfortunately, we have to throw them in the general rubbish. This wrap cannot be recycled and by keeping this on the product it could mean that the whole product cannot be recycled! More on recycling rules below…

Watch out!

We don’t make it easy here in the UK and every council has different rules of what can and can’t be recycled and how to recycle. Make sure you read up on what your area can take.

Don’t be a wishcycler and chuck everything you think can be recycled into the recycling because this can unfortunately be detrimental to the recycling process.

It can result in a lot of manpower to remove those un-recyclable products. Those greasy pizza boxes or ink cartridges for example can contaminate recyclable materials and this then means they can’t be recycled and causes more waste or damages the machinery.

Don’t worry about small attachments to your recyclable goods like glue or a staple as these are generally okay. It’s entire items including food waste that are the issue. So, do make sure you wash out any food packaging and dry it before popping it in your recycling!