Residents urged to join mighty recycling mission

Bridgend County Borough Council is backing Wales Recycles’ Be Mighty. Recycle. mission to tackle climate change and make the country world number one for recycling.

Across Wales, 92% of people now recycle regularly and residents are being encouraged to keep up their efforts by recycling all they can this spring.

Despite the challenges presented over the last year, Wales’ recycling rate hit a record-high of 65%, and 55% now recycle more than they did 12 months ago. Wales is currently third best in the world, but with half of people still not recycling everything they can, there is still some way to go.

Recycling is one of the easiest ways we can help tackle climate change from our homes as it helps to conserve natural resources and save energy, slowing down the effects of climate change.

Recycling has become the norm in Bridgend County Borough and most of us recycle our waste every week. Over the past decade, recycling has soared and we’re now recycling 67 per cent of our waste, up from just 46 per cent in 2010.

Residents should all be proud of their efforts but we must keep up the good work and recycle everything we possibly can at home – whether that’s food waste such as eggshells, peelings and teabags from the kitchen, or empty shampoo and shower gel bottles from the bathroom.

Deputy Leader Hywel Williams

Wales Recycles has shared its top five tips for recycling at home this spring:

• Go green with your spring clean: Empty cleaning product bottles can be recycled – from plastic bleach bottles to trigger sprays and furniture polish aerosols. Make sure they’re empty and put them into your recycling instead of throwing them away. Recycling just one cleaning spray bottle saves enough energy to charge six tablets.
• Clear out your clutter: Spring is traditionally a time to have a sort-out at home. If you’ve got clothes/textiles, small electrical items or batteries to dispose of, they can be recycled at community recycling centres or collected at the kerbside – just put them out in a carrier bag next to your recycling containers on your usual collection day. Check Wales Recycles’ recycling locator for more information.
• Turn your food waste into power: If you’re cooking, put all inedible food waste such as vegetable peelings and stalks into your food waste caddy, along with eggshells and any bones leftover from meat or fish. Teabags, coffee grounds and fruit peelings can also be recycled. Local food waste is treated at the Severn Trent Anaerobic Digestion Facility in Stormy Down, where it is transformed into electricity to power homes and to also produce a fertiliser which can be used in farming. One recycled banana peel can produce enough energy to charge two smartphones.
• Boss your bathroom bottles: Most household plastic items can be recycled including bathroom toiletries such as plastic shampoo, conditioner, hand soap and shower gel bottles. When they’re finished, give them a rinse and put them in your recycling container. It takes 75% less energy to make a plastic bottle from recycled plastic compared with using 'raw’ materials, so protect the planet from your bathroom by recycling.
• Ace your aerosols: Empty deodorant, dry shampoo and air freshener aerosols can all be recycled. Metal is infinite meaning it can be recycled again and again without losing any of its quality. Join the 73% of people in Wales who already recycle their empty aerosol cans.

For more information about recycling in Bridgend County Borough, visit the council’s webpage and to find out more about Be Mighty. Recycle. visit the Wales Recycles website.