[Ad] Be Mighty Recycle/ Bydd Wych Ailgylcha Let’s Do A Green Decluttering This Spring

I have been working with the Wales Recycles and their Be Mighty Recycle/Bydd Wych Ailgylcha campaign since September 2020. It’s Wales’ biggest ever recycling campaign with the aim of making Wales the number one nation in the world for recycling.

The importance of recycling cannot be highlighted enough. That’s because recycling is one of the major factors in protecting the environment. In doing so you’ll also be protecting the environment. To reduce the effects of climate change. In addition you’ll be safeguarding the planet for our children and their children.

With springtime officially starting in March, one of the first things I notice is how cluttered our home is. I instantly think my goodness our home is in need of a serious de-clutter! During the cold winter months we appear to have collected a lot of clutter!

Springtime is of course the time of the year when most people will do a deep clean and de-clutter of their home, more commonly known as a spring cleaning.

Over the last 12 months we have spent so much time at home. I’m sure, like me, you will have more than the usual amount of unwanted items. This year is also a little bit different for me as we are hoping to move this summer. This means I want to have a very big de-clutter so that we will have less things to move.

This will be big job to take on, but my intention is to recycle everything I possibly can whichever room it comes from in the home.

When I look around our home there are so many items that will need to be thrown out and some of those items are very easily recycled. However, some items can be very tricky in deciding if they can be recycled. As such here is a list of items that are easily recycled and some of the more tricky items to be recycled:

Items easily recycled from the home

Plastic Recycling/Ailgylchu Plastig

Plastic bottles which we appear to have plenty of in our kitchen and bathroom can easily be recycled. They include hand wash bottles which we have certainly used many of in the last 12 months, as well as shampoo, conditioner and cleaning products. It’s important that you make sure they’re empty and rinse them before recycling.

Just one cleaning bottle when recycled will save enough energy to charge 6 iPads! How amazing is that!

Aerosols/ Erosolau

It’s not until you start to de-clutter your home that you realise how many empty aerosols you have around the home. These can recycled in the normal way from your home.

One aerosol when recycled can save enough energy to power a TV for 8 hours.

Cardboard/Cardfwrdd

I was also shocked with how much cardboard we had in our home. From boxes that some of the children’s toys came in at Christmas that I have kept, although I’m not quite sure why! They were in the bottom of the wardrobes, in fact just about everywhere! So, when we possibly move, I don’t want to be moving empty boxes. It’s time to recycle those cardboard boxes!

Over 86% of people in Wales recycle their cardboard including items such as toothpaste boxes, toiletry boxes and toilet roll tubes. In fact, did you know that just one recycled toilet roll tube saves enough energy to charge your smartphone.

There are of course lots of items in our home which can be a lot trickier to recycle.

Items that are tricky to recycle

Unwanted clothes/Dillad Diangen

If you have growing children like I do, there is something that can be discarded in a very short time and that of course, is clothes. Children grow so very quickly and clothes that fitted them one day don’t the next.

I have also noticed that we as adults have a habit of collecting clothes in our wardrobes and they get lost at the back and the chances of us ever wearing them again are actually zero.

With unwanted clothes we can’t recycle from the home in the usual way via our local council. However, we can still recycle old clothes by simply finding out where our nearest clothing bank is. This is a perfect way to recycle your old clothes properly and of course making sure they don’t end up on a landfill site. You can also sell old clothes or take them to your local charity shop. 

Batteries/Batris

When you are a dad to 9 year twin girls there is one item that we forever seem to be buying. Batteries! Whether it’s to power their toys and gadgets, or for their walkie talkies, it’s a constant stream of batteries! I make it my mission to dispose of batteries in a safe and environmentally friendly way. The last thing I want is for them to end up on landfill.

Thankfully for me my local supermarket has a community recycling facility for batteries which I visit at regular intervals to dispose of the used batteries safely and in an environmentally safe way.

Unwanted Electrical items/Eitemau Trydanol Diangen 

When I started to look in the kitchen cupboards and my garage to de-clutter, I was staggered at the amount of unused or broken electrical items we had. There was literally all sorts from a broken food processor to a broken TV in the garage that I put out of the way during lockdown and simply forgot about it.

All unwanted waste, electrical, and electronic appliances can be recycled at your Household Waste Recycling Centre. This is where I will be making a trip very soon to make sure all my waste electrical and electronic appliances items are recycled.

Local authorities across Wales have made it easy to recycle and all local authorities in Wales offer a recycling service. If you are not sure what you can recycle at home, you can check out the Recycling Locator which will tell you exactly what can be recycled in your area https://walesrecycles.org.uk/node/1904

 

Global Recycling Day

March 18th is Global Recycling Day. This is an important date all around the world. Here in Wales we have been running the campaign, ‘Be Mighty Recycle’. It is Wales’ biggest ever national recycling drive. Wales is currently rated at number 3 for being the best at recycling in the world and we are easily the best in UK. The Be Mighty Recycle campaign is aimed at getting more people in Wales to recycle at home. The Welsh Government’s aim is to make Wales number one in the world for recycling.

Recycling is something that we should all be doing, and we need to as a nation think long and hard before we throw anything in the bin and ask ourselves a simple question. Can it be recycled?

The importance of recycling benefits the environment which is so important and will ultimately help climate control and protect the planet for our children.

When we recycle it reduces our reliance on raw materials which in turn helps to protect the environment. Recycling helps save energy because we can use existing materials to make new things rather than extract new materials from the earth. It takes 95% less energy to make glass or metal items from recycled materials and it’s worth remembering that glass and metal can be recycled over and over without losing any of its quality.

In Wales most local authorities send their food waste to a special processing facility to create green energy which is then turned into renewable energy which powers homes and communities in Wales.

Recycling food waste directly tackle climate change. The process of turning food waste into energy is called anaerobic digestion and every council in Wales offers a local food waste recycling service.

Did you know that over 80% of people in Wales recycle their food waste. One caddy full of food can generate enough electricity to power a typical home for one hour.

As I have already said Wales is the 3rd best recycling nation in the world but we want to be number one. To achieve this we need to do more.

Currently in Wales almost half of us are not recycling so there is plenty of room for improvement. The more recycling by us in Wales, the better it will be for the environment and our children’s futures.

Here are few more interesting facts for you:

55% of people are recycling more than they were last year.

92% of people in Wales recycle (according to WRAP Recycling Tracker Survey October 2020).

Wales recycling rate has reached its highest ever target at 65% smashing its target of 64% in 2020.

The Welsh Government has set a target to recycle 70% of our waste by 2025 and become a zero-waste nation by 2050. This is totally achievable when you consider that back in 2009 the figure was just 37%. Now in 2020 65% of the Welsh population are recycling their waste. One of the driving forces behind this brilliant improvement is the younger generation with 80% of 18-34 year olds saying they recycled more in 2020 than in 2019.

Let’s make the change! Why don’t you become the recycling warrior in your home and make sure everything that can be recycled is recycled? As a nation let’s show the world how recycling protects the planet for future generations.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the human race and recycling can help reverse climate change. Let’s not become known as the generation that ignored the problem of climate change and left a world for future generations that quite honestly was unacceptable.

If you would like to learn more about the Be Mighty Recycle/Bydd Wych Ailgylcha campaign visit the website right here: www.byddWychAilgylcha.org.uk / www.bemightyrecycle.org.uk