To recycle, or not to recycle (and how) - an A-Z guide

Telephone directories belong with your RECYCLING.

Examples:  Yellow pages and catalogues.

Textiles can be COLLECTED FROM YOUR HOME, taken to a TEXTILES BANK, or DONATED to a charity shop.

Examples: Clothes, shoes, bed linen, bags, and blankets.

Please Remember: For home textile collections, please bag them in a clear bag, and tie it tightly so the clothes do not get wet or dirty, and leave them out by 6am.

Hints and Tips: Why not learn to fix and upcycle old items with Love Your Clothes. You could also attend a Swishing event, or hold an event yourself to swap clothes in your communities to get something new in a more sustainable way.

Facts:

• 95% of clothing is recyclable, yet 41% of people are not aware of textile recycling facilities.
• It takes 700 gallons of water to make just one T-Shirt. This is enough water to keep one person hydrated for 300 days.
• 350,000 tonnes, that’s around £140 million worth of used but still wearable clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year. This equates to more than 30% of our unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill.
• We Great Britons send 700,000 tonnes of clothing to recycling centres, textile banks, clothes collections and to charity each year. That’s enough to fill 459 Olympic-size swimming pools.

Toothpaste tubes belong in your REFUSE bin.

Please Remember: The cardboard boxes and plastic lids (if clean) should be recycled.

Hints and Tips: You can recycle toothbrushes, tooth paste tubes, and toothbrush packaging with TerraCycle, so have a look for your closest drop off point, save them up, and recycle them if possible.

Fact: Around 15% of the money we spend on products pays for packaging – most of which goes straight in the bin.