Recycle Week 2024: North East Lincolnshire Council joins the national campaign to save recycling from the bin

Now in its twenty-first year, Recycle Week (organised by Recycle Now) is the UK’s biggest celebration of recycling, shining a light on the nation’s recycling habits through activities happening across the UK.

The latest Recycle Now research shows that while we’re a nation of recyclers - nine out of ten people regularly recycle – nearly eight out of ten of us (79%) put one or more items into the bin that could have been recycled.

In North East Lincolnshire, recycling rates are currently at almost 40%.This includes waste collected form household recycling and brown bins; items taken to the tip and material collected by the Council’s Street Cleansing teams.

However, the other 60%, collected from green bins and other sources, is sent to the Energy for Waste plant in Stallingborough to be incinerated. To achieve the national recycling target (60%), North East Lincolnshire needs to recycle an extra 13,000 tonnes a year by 2030.

The message, Rescue Me – Recycle, aims to empower people in North East Lincolnshire to look out for items missed most often in the weekly recycling collection. The Council will be encouraging residents to keep them in circulation by recycling, so that material can be made into something new. These include:

• Spray Bottles – can be placed in the grey bin

• Yoghurt Pots – can be placed in the grey bin

• Perfume Bottle – can be placed in the grey bin

• Deodorant Can – can be placed in the grey bin

• Toilet roll tube – can be placed in the blue bin

In North East Lincolnshire, different types of waste is taken to various local plants. Everything we collect we keep as local as possible, to keep our carbon footprint low. Below are some examples of where your waste is taken:

• Cardboard – H Cope & Sons or Biffa Waste Services Ltd in Grimsby

• General waste – Biffa Waste Services Ltd, Ellgia Ltd, H Cope & Sons and Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) in Grimsby, Scunthorpe and Immingham

• Recyclable plastic, glass and cans – Bespoke Recycling Solutions in Grimsby

Portfolio Holder for Environment, Councillor Henry Hudson, said: “We are very pleased as a Local Authority to be part of Recycle Week.

“Recycling is paramount to the Council and we are constantly trying to improve our rate of recycling. By 2030, we hope to have a 60% recycling rate and initiatives like this are perfect for working towards that goal.”

Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said “We are delighted that North East Lincolnshire Council is supporting Recycle Week. Keeping these materials circulating means we can reduce emissions linked with our weekly shop. Most people are recycling, and the material we capture has a multitude of uses, so the next step is to ensure everyone captures everything they can. Every aerosol, every trigger spray bottle, every plastic pot, perfume bottle and toilet roll tube. Rescue – recycle!”

If you would like to follow the action on social media and take part in your own rescue missions, please use the hashtag #RescueMeRecycle and #RecycleWeek.