Recycle Week 2021: What are you doing to Reduce, Re-use and Recycle?

Guest Blog by Ann Johnson

The week beginning the 20th Sept is Recycle Week, a week that is now a flagship annual event and a celebration of recycling across the nation. Now in its 18th year, it’s the one week of the year where retailers, brands, waste management companies, trade associations, governments and the media come together to achieve one goal: to galvanise the public into recycling more of the right things, more often.

Most of us already do, through small but powerful habits – like recycling. We know environmental concerns are still on the increase, so we need to do more.  We do our bit at Forest of Hearts in terms of recycling and we would love to know what you are doing.

For me; I have been seeking to limit plastic use especially as we know that in landfills, plastic can take up to 1,000 years to completely decompose and that it is predicted that there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish by 2050. But its not easy for all of us to limit all plastic use whilst the costs of the alternatives can be so high, for example replacing toothpaste tubes; the alternatives are still very expensive.  

At home we are buying low energy white goods and we plan next year to move from a petrol car to an electric one; I have also been helping set up a local Repair Café so as to help repair items destined for landfill interestingly: electrical goods are the fastest growing waste stream in the UK, growing by 5% each year.

I happily visit car boot sales to find items now unloved by others that can have our home with me; add to my wardrobe or make affordable gifts for the family; I have also loved going to our local food hub on a Saturday morning where for a pound donation I can usually fill up two bags for life with over produced food, supermarket surplus and almost out of date food; this encourages me to make soups; quiches, cakes and a range of salads and veg dishes; a real “Ready Steady Cook” experience with produce destined for landfill.

Reducing, Re-using and Recycling can certainly be fun.