Recycle Now, the British recycling initiative

The UK launched the Big Recycle a week-long campaign to encourage more people to recycle by raising public awareness which does increasing the amount packaging and other waste being recycled.

The Big Recycle is part of Recycle Now which is a £10m campaign which is run by the Waste and Resources Action Program, a not-for-profit company set up to promote sustainable waste management. UK recycling organizations includingBritish Glass, Corus, Novelis, and Paperchain were involved as well.

Besides the Big Recycle, Recycle Now includes and a year-round schedule of promotional events, a recycling information website, newspaper and magazine adds and a series of animated TV commercials.

The Big Recycle was mostly organized by local councils, community groups, individuals, and supermarkets throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The volunteers showed why they should be recycling and how, and where, they can recycle.

The recycling campaign was being led by the environment minister Ben Bradshaw, who visited some of recycling plants ahead of the launch. Mr. Bradshaw said the UK was on track to reach its target of recycling 25% of waste by 2006.

He said: "I welcome this new study (see Recycling on the rise in the UK…but slowly) which shows that households and businesses are recycling more than ever before, which is excellent news. There is no doubt that it is becoming easier to recycle in the UK, and that people are becoming increasingly keen to do so. However, there is still room for improvement. The study does indicate that meeting European 2008 packaging waste targets will be challenging. We need to continue expanding our recycling infrastructure, and encouraging all households and businesses to play their part. Awareness-raising campaigns such as the Big Recycle have an important role in shifting public attitudes."

Friends of the Earth is an environmental charity welcomed the Big Recycle initiative but their spokesperson Claire Wilton warned that more action was needed. "We've been asking the government for a long time to put more money into awareness campaigns but we've still got a long way to go. What we need is more money and higher recycling targets which should lead to more local authority collections."