Join us on the Big Recycling Hunt!
This Recycle Week, Veolia is on the Big Recycling Hunt with school pupils across the country.
In the midst of a climate crisis, it is crucial to reduce our need for extracting precious resources from the environment and to protect the natural world.
We can do that together by recycling everything we possibly can.
Many people still believe that there is no point in recycling. But in the UK alone, recycling saves about 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year - this is the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road!
We've been working with young Recycling Heroes across the country to help us understand what we can recycle and why it's so incredibly important to do so.
Watch on to hear what they have to say!
Food Waste
Every year in the UK, 4.5 million tonnes of food is thrown away in our homes - enough to fill Wembley Stadium 9 times! However, food waste that is recycled can be converted into compost and natural forms of energy.
By reducing your food waste in the first place, you could also save as much as £60 a month and shrink your carbon footprint by 25%!
Check out www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for all the best tips and tricks on how to do this.
Plastics
Almost all new plastic is made from fossil fuels which emits hundreds of millions of tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year. The more new plastic we create, the more fossil fuels we use and the more pressure we put on our already overburdened planet.
That's just the impact they have in production. As our Recycling Heroes say, the lasting impact they can have when discarded or thrown away improperly can be devastating.
Paper & Cardboard
Trees are the ultimate weapon in our fight against climate change. Not only do they produce vast amounts of oxygen but they also mitigate global temperatures by storing carbon thereby removing carbon dioxide from the air.
The average UK family throws away 6 trees worth of paper per year. However, by recycling just one tonne of paper, we can save as many as 17 trees from ever being cut down.
Glass
One of the main ingredients in glass is sand and sand is the planet’s most mined material which causes a lot of environmental damage including beach erosion, habitat destruction and river pollution. We need to minimise our need for new sand.
The average family in the UK uses 500 glass bottles and jars every year. However, one tonne (approximately 4,000 bottles) of recycled glass can save over a tonne of raw materials, reduce air pollution by 20% and cut water pollution by 50%. Join us on the Big Recycling Hunt but emptying and rinsing all your glass containers and popping them in the recycling bin!