Global recycling day is one of the coolest dates in the calendar. It’s an opportunity for the recycling sector to talk about what we’re doing, to engage the interested in our activities, and to share resources that inspire people to improve their resource efficiency.

 

We want to generate awareness for this day and show how committed the waste management industry is to pushing those recycling figures ever higher and moving away from a reliance on landfills and raw materials.

 

The seventh resource

Global Recycling Day has many objectives, such as addressing world leaders, businesses, communities and individuals to be more committed to recycling. It appeals to consumers to act with a fresh perspective and ask themselves new questions about their behaviour towards waste.

 

Another objective, ‘The seventh resource’ is an innovative approach, and asks people to see recycling as an essential element, in the same way we look at water, air, oil, natural gas, coal and minerals. From these six resources, we create almost everything that we use, and right now, we really can’t live without them. Global Recycling Day aims to encourage people to take recycling and see that it is not finite, like these other resources, and that for some materials it offers indefinite opportunities.

 

Recycling combats climate change

Recycling saves more than 700,000,000,000kg of carbon from entering the atmosphere each year, an exceptional figure that should serve to highlight the immense potential of the activity.

 

To add to this, recycling alone offsets all of the emissions from the aviation industry, which is one of the planets biggest sources of air pollution.

 

Recycling also provides 40% of the worlds material needs for production, which is helpful, considering humans have used more resources in the last 50 years than in all previous history. Staggering.

 

Recycling has social benefits too

It’s estimated that more than 1,600,000 people work in processing recyclables, and with further investment and engagement in recycling, that figure will only continue to rise. An increasing global population means more recycling opportunities will open up over time.

 

Domestic Recycling in the UK

Education around recycling has come a long way, helping the national domestic recycling rate to be around 45%, with packaging waste being recycled more than 70% of the time.

 

When you put your cereal box in one recycling container and your milk jug in another, it may seem like such a minor thing, but when millions of people do it, it compounds to have a huge positive global effect.

 

Final words from the expert

Ranjit Baxi, President of the Bureau of International Recycling (the organisation who started the initiative) states:

“18 March will be a day dedicated to the future of our planet and a day that will showcase the pivotal role that the recycling industry plays in its future, and the immense contributions the industry makes to save over 700 million tons of carbon emissions annually which helps support climate change goals.”

 

Want to support Global Recycling Day?

Go here for all of the resources you can imagine!

Author: Gary Watson
Published: April 11, 2018