DERRY City and Strabane District Council are teaming up with national campaigners Recycle Now to encourage the public to both look good and feel good by recycling their used bathroom items.
The campaign is being held to mark Recycle Week 2017 from Monday September 25th until Sunday October 1st.
Recent research by Recycle Now revealed that while 90% of kitchen packages are now recycled, nearly half (49%) of the UK population admit to not always recycling their bathroom and bedroom aerosols – including deodorant and hairspray.
The research also found that over one third (38%) of the population say they don’t always recycle glass items in the bedroom such as aftershave and perfume bottles.
Pledging his support for the campaign, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Councillor Maolíosa McHugh, urged the public to make a conscious effort to help improve those recycling figures.
“I am delighted to give Council’s backing to this campaign to encourage people in our City and District to recycle more things more often from all around the home,” he said.
“As the statistics show, the recycling rates for bathroom waste are much lower than those from other areas in the home and that is why we are asking for people to make a particular effort to add recycling to your daily washing and grooming routine – to both look and feel good.
“There is a responsibility on all of us to make the small changes to our routine that can have a major impact on the protection of the environment.”
Linda Crichton, Head of Recycle Now, added: “Many of us have our daily bathroom routines in place – whether we’re getting ready to go to work, out for a party, or just settling down for a night in.
“During Recycle Week, we are looking to shake up those routines and let people know that they can do good for the environment you live in in the process of looking good.
“One tip is to put a recycling bag or bin in your bathroom or bedroom to make recycling an easy part of your routine,”
Aerosols such as deodorants and hair sprays can be recycled several times without any loss in quality, so they may return as parts of mobile phones, dishwashers or even as another aerosol can.
Recycle Now have calculated that if everyone in Derry and Strabane recycled one more deodorant, it would save enough energy to power a typical primary school for 50 days.
Council have organised a number of events to mark Recycling Week starting with Monday’s ‘What Goes In My Bin?’ information events at the Guildhall and Alley Theatre.
On Tuesday September 26th a ‘Recycling and Reducing Your Household Budget’ seminar will be held at the Pennyburn Recycling Centre before the same event takes place at Strahan’s Road Recycling Centre in Strabane on Wednesday.
On Thursday members of Council’s Waste and Recycling Team will be answering the public’s questions line on Twitter from 7.30pm, to get involved use the hash tag #AskRecycleWk.
For more information about your local recycling scheme, including details of what can and can’t be recycled from around the house, visit www.derrystrabane.com/recycleweek.
Tags: