With national Recycle Week (14-20 October) underway, residents in the Forest of Dean are being asked to support this year’s campaign by rescuing recyclable items from their rubbish bins to prevent them going to waste. 

Recent analysis suggests that over half of the weight of the district’s black bin waste comes from items which could have been easily recycled by using the Forest of Dean District Council’s kerbside service. This is despite the Council offering every household a weekly collection for paper, cardboard, tins and cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, textiles and food waste, alongside a fortnightly collection for batteries and small electrical and electronic appliances. 

According to the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) - the organisation behind Recycle Week’s Rescue Me – Recycle campaign - 79 per cent of the public admit to not always recycling common items that could be recycled using their local kerbside service.  

Recyclables that top the list of items most likely to be overlooked by UK households include glass perfume and aftershave bottles, aluminium foil, aerosols, plastic cleaning and detergent bottles and plastic toiletry and shampoo bottles.  

Councillor Andy Moore, portfolio holder for waste and recycling at Forest of Dean District Council, said: “Recycle Week is all about encouraging residents to recycle more of the right things more often, so materials can go on to be reused and not wasted. Each item recycled will help reduce the need to use raw materials, saving energy and emissions. 

“But it’s not only opportunities to recycle everyday items which can sometimes get missed. A look at what’s going in people’s bins shows that food waste accounts for about a quarter of all rubbish being thrown away. This means a further 2,775 tonnes of food waste could be collected and turned into green energy. This is not only better for the environment by helping reduce reliance on natural gas but would deliver savings of over a quarter of a million pounds in disposal costs. 

Forest of Dean district is placed in the top 15% of English local authorities for its waste and recycling performance in the latest Let’s Recycle rankings (2022/23).