Council is joining ‘The BIG Recycling Hunt’ for Recycle Week 2023!

Now in its twentieth year, Recycle Week is the biggest national annual celebration of recycling. ‘The Big Recycling Hunt’, the central theme of this year's campaign, promises to shine a bright spotlight on ‘missed capture.’

The campaign runs from Monday 16 to Friday 20 October and aims to engage children and families across the district in the quest to find 'lost recyclables' that too often find their way into the rubbish bin. By focusing on commonly missed items such as empty aerosols, plastic cleaning product bottles, plastic toiletry bottles, plastic pots and tubs, and food tins, Recycle Now wants to foster a deeper understanding of recycling in the younger generation.

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Valerie Harte said, “I would encourage as many people as possible across the district to get involved in this years ‘Big Recycling Hunt’ we all have our part to play in helping to recycle items that are commonly not recycled or missed at home as we all lead busy lives but The Big Recycling Hunt –is asking residents to recycle more tins, cleaning bottles, takeaway trays, shampoo bottles and other items like yoghurt pots, butter tubs, and plastic meat trays that we’ve emptied along the way. If we all do that little bit more! We need to make sure we get our recycling right by reducing contamination in our black bins.”

Recycle Now and Newry, Mourne and Down District Council are here to help! One of the easiest ways residents can address this issue 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 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, Campaign Manager for Recycle Now, said, “By recycling even better we can have a big impact on our environment. In Newry, Mourne and Down it’s no different – more and more people are recycling, so the next step is to make sure we hunt down these missed items and get our recycling right. So come on, Newry, Mourne and Down, keep up the great work and let’s make the district’s recycling better than ever before!”

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