Council Asks Residents to Help Save Recycling from the Black Bin for Recycle Week 2024!

Now in its twenty-first year, Recycle Week (organised by Recycle Now) is the biggest national annual celebration of recycling. The ‘Rescue Me – Recycle’ campaign message for this year’s campaign urges residents to save five packaging heroes from being rubbished and keeping them out of the bin and living the circular life, through recycling.

The campaign runs Monday 14 to Friday 18 October to celebrate the efforts of people in our district and help save five packaging heroes from the rubbish bin. The latest Recycle Now research shows that - nine out of ten people regularly recycle – nearly eight out of ten of us (79%) put one or more items into the black bin that could have been recycled. 

To highlight the plight of the five ill-fated packaging heroes, Recycle Now has created a team of characters to bring the campaign to life and is asking everyone to ‘Rescue Me – Recycle’. The condemned containers include Dee Dee the deodorant, Rey the plastic trigger spray, Yogi the yoghurt pot, Fitz the perfume bottle and humble Hube - the toilet roll tube. A week of social media messages, ‘Rescue Me – Recycle’ aims to empower residents in our district to look out for the five items missed most often in the weekly recycling collection. We will be encouraging residents to keep them in circulation by recycling. 

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Pete Byrne said, “I would like to thank all residents in the district for their excellent efforts to recycle their waste. Currently our recycling rate is 50% but there is room for improvement, and we can do better. That’s why I give my full backing to Rescue Me – Recycle. This informative campaign highlights five easily recycled packaging items that very often are missed around the home and put in the wrong bin. I would encourage all residents to make the extra effort to ensure these materials end up in their rightful place in the recycling bin. Together we can raise our recycling rate even further!”

One of the easiest ways residents can address missed items is by recycling more of the right things, more often. Here are some top tips that residents can do to help us recycle right:

• Your Blue/Green Bin is for dry recycling materials including glass, bottles and jars
• Your Brown Bin is for ALL food waste 
• Your Black Bin is for all materials that cannot be recycled 
• Remember: Recycling materials MUST NOT be placed in your Black Bin

If residents are unsure about how to recycle a specific item or need more information on recycling materials at home, please visit: www.newrymournedown.org/blue-green-bin

Craig Stephens, Senior Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said “We are delighted that Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is supporting Recycle Week. While a light-hearted campaign, recycling is essential to limit the impact what we buy has on the environment. 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!”

To find out more about Recycle Week visit www.recyclenow.org.uk/RecycleWeek.