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In Education > Recycle

Recycle

What does Recycle mean?
The Waste Hierarchy shows that next stage to deal with your waste is to Recycle. Recycling waste means using waste to make new products. These products can be the same as the original or completely different. For example did you know that 25 plastic bottles can be recycled into an adult fleece?

Separating your waste at school/college for recycling will make sure that recyclates (materials that can be recycled) will be made into new products rather than being taken to landfill.

Recycling at school is an easy step you can take to help the environment in three main ways:

• Reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill. Burying less rubbish means we have to build fewer landfill sites, which frees up another important resource: land.
• Save energy and raw materials. Recycling uses less energy than making items from scratch, for example, recycling an aluminium can saves 95% of the energy needed to make a completely new can.
• Help tackle climate change. Reducing the energy used to make and transport products means less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere. Recycling also cuts the amounts of methane, another powerful greenhouse gas, which can be given off by biodegradable materials as they rot under pressure in landfill sites.

Buy Recycled
Another good way to support recycling is to buy recycled products as alternatives to non-recycled products. There are many school products which you can buy which are recycled. You can buy pencil cases made from recycled car tyres, pencils made from recycled plastic cups, or rulers made from recycled polystyrene packaging! Next time you are getting some new stationery for school, look out for recycled products like these.

How can our school recycle waste?
If you don't already have recycling in your school, contact your local council's recycling officer. They can pay a visit to your school to advise on how to recycle the waste produced in school.
Once recycling facilities have been set up within your school, staff and students should be encouraged to use them using a variety of means including setting targets and adding incentives. Visit the set up recycling services page to find out how to set up recycling services in your school.