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Retailers join Joanna Lumley in Xmas recycling campaign
Several major retailers have signed up to a Christmas card recycling scheme created by Recycle Now and the Woodland Trust and launched this week by Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley OBE.
WHSmith, Tesco, TK Maxx and Marks & Spencer are taking part in the scheme, which aims to recycle a record 100 million cards, eclipsing last year's 93 million. The money raised from the initiative (through a system of recycling credits made by the county councils) will also allow the Woodland
“Christmas is a great time for celebrations and being with our families, but we do end up creating more waste,” said Lumley. “A simple way to help reduce this and help climate change at the same time is to recycle as much as possible and Christmas cards are one of the easiest items to keep out of our bins.”
According to Recycle Now, English households will throw out an extra five sacks of waste over the Christmas period. That equates to nearly three quarters of a million tonnes of extra waste, which is equivalent to generating 1.4 million tonnes of CO2.
One of the chief causes of the extra waste is Christmas cards. It is predicted that over one billion cards will be dumped after the festive period.
“The amount of extra rubbish produced over Christmas is staggering - the CO2 usage is equivalent to producing energy for all the households in Leeds and Doncaster to watch TV for a year,” said Fridey Cordingley, Head of Recycle Now. “But there are lots of ways to help cut this down. Recycling is an easy way to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill and help tackle climate.”
Created and delivered by WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) on behalf of the government, the Recycle Now campaign was launched in 2004 to help achieve the government's recycling targets - most notably to increase the national recycling rate to 40% by 2010. It currently stands at nearly 27%.
Apart from taking their Christmas cards to the retailers taking part in the scheme, Recycle Now lists several other ways in which consumers can cut back on their festive waste.
They suggest recycling real Christmas trees as many DIY retailers and garden centres now offer this service. Plus, they recommend putting a box or bin in your kitchen to make it easy to separate items for recycling, and starting your own compost bin.
“It's a great place to put all your vegetable peelings from Christmas dinner!” according to the campaign release.
Tagged as: green | recycling | nick morgan
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