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Recycle Week – The nation’s annual celebration of recycling returns!

Eighteen years ago, WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) introduced the 1st ever Recycle Week, celebrating and promoting the benefits of recycling. Now in 2021, nearly 2 decades later, Recycle Week is bigger and better than ever. WRAP describes the flagship campaign as ‘one week of the year where retailers, brands, waste management companies, trade associations, governments, and the media come together to achieve one goal: to galvanise the public into recycling more of the right things, more often’.

2021 Theme: Step It Up this Recycle Week

Although Recycle Week alone sends off a specific and important message, WRAP also has an annual theme which is a key focus, this year it is ‘Step it Up’. Taking place between the 20th and 26th of September, this year there will be a greater emphasis on going to extra mile when it comes to recycling and reducing climate change impacts.

With environmental concerns still on the increase, and more and more being raised each year WRAP is encouraging us all to ‘do more’. The government has its own plans in place over the next few years to tackle, climate and recycling issues, including the Plastic Packaging Tax, DRS Schemes, and Consistancy of Collections. These aim to help support a more circular economy, by making recycling easier for consumers and promoting manufacturings and retailers to take more responsibility for the contents of products in the first instance.

Aiming For More Success

WRAP announced that last year (2020) was their most successful Recycle Week ever, despite the pandemic, they also had overwhelming support in the form of donors and supporters. It was revealed that consumers are 44% more likely to purchase or shop with a brand that supports Recycle Week, this incredible result brings hope that now even more UK businesses and brands  will get on board.

We have supported Recycle Week since its debut in 2003, and this year more than ever we support the important message of Stepping Up. The better the understanding of the importance of recycling, the more we as individuals or businesses can do to combat the battle of climate change and the ecological crisis.

Read more about Recycle Week 2021 and learn how you can get involved by visiting WRAP’s website.