A new survey of British adults for Recycle Now has revealed a compelling picture of the UK’s recycling habits and uncovered several red lines when it comes to bin etiquette between neighbours.
Overall, the UK is a proud recycling nation with 89% of households regularly recycling and 84% of people believing everyone has a responsibility to help clean up the environment – a new survey for Recycle Week has revealed. Only 1% of people never recycle. That said, over one in three (38%) agree they could recycle more than they currently do.
We like routine in our recycling, with 65% of people preferring to have one family member responsible for putting out the bins, double the amount who rotate the responsibility or decide on the day. Only younger households prefer to mix up responsibility through rotas and on the day decisions. Most people (58%) also think they are the best recycler in the house.
When it comes to the big questions of when the bin should go out, we overwhelmingly (84%) prefer to do this the day or night before collection, with only 1% of people making an on-the-day dash as the lorry trundles up the street. Again, households aged between 18-34 are more likely to find themselves making that last-minute jog to the kerb.
Thankfully, our organised habits mean only 17% of people have had to make the ‘wheelie’ fast chase after the bin lorry to avoid missing the round completely, but 6% of Brits find themselves in this situation quite regularly. Locating the bin once it’s been emptied can prove more challenging, and 54% of people have had to search the streets for their bin.
The survey was conducted by the campaign Recycle Now to mark the 23rd Recycle Week, which runs from 14-20 September.
Adam Herriott, Recycle Week spokesperson, said “We’re a nation of recyclers, but our annual citizen tracker shows that the number of people who feel recycling is worthwhile has dropped from 81% in 2021, to 69% today. Recycling remains a key activity we can all do to play our part in reducing the amount of waste we produce, and the impact this has on the environment and climate change.
“38% of people tell us that they could recycle more, and now more than ever it’s vital we do to reduce our carbon footprint. The fact is, nearly half of all emissions produced globally are linked to the food we eat and the items we make and buy. So, it’s imperative we all play our part in maximizing what we get out of them.”
In the age of AI and energy-hungry data centres, Recycle Week is reminding people that recycling is the unsung energy hero that can help to reduce our energy demand. Recycling can also keep valuable natural resources in the economy and reduce the need to extract metals and fossil fuels from the environment. Recycling one deodorant can will save enough energy to charge a phone forty times and recycling a plastic shampoo bottle uses just 12% of the energy needed to make one from scratch.
Arguments about recycling are not quite the hot topic we may have imagined, and 80% say these seldom occur. But we are happy to correct someone else’s recycling mistakes, and 32% of people will remove a recyclable item from the general rubbish and put it in recycling when someone else has put it in the wrong bin.
When it comes to neighbourly behaviour though, most people (70%) say they have never put an item of their recycling into their neighbour’s bin, but 30% have and 11% questioned say this is a regular strategy. We also believe that our neighbours may be employing the same tactic on us, to a greater extent.
49% of people have spotted something from next door in their wheelie bin on more than one occasions, and 19% see this happen often.
Whether to climb in the bin to make more room for rubbish or recycling is something a third of the population regularly considers. While 67% of people manage to close the lids most weeks, for 33% this is something they’re either resigned to regularly do, or have had to attempt occasionally.
Thankfully most of us (65%) put the right bin out on the right week, but 35% have found ourselves dragging a fully loaded wheelie bin back home after putting out the wrong bin at some time – an error over a third of people find more frustrating than forgetting to get something on our shopping list.
The introduction of Simper Recycling in England from March means many more homes are receiving food waste collections for the first time. These help to capture organic material that can be recycled to generate electricity – recycling just eight banana peels generates enough energy to boil a kettle – and produces organically rich digestate for farmland. But when it comes to food waste collections, our rubbish bins are still often better fed than our food waste caddies.
Despite 57% of UK households questioned saying they receive food waste collections and are using them, the dominant disposal route for most items of food remains the general rubbish. 18-34s are more likely to put every food item straight in the general rubbish rather than recycle or compost it, and anything in the packet – whether out of date food or half eaten – goes straight into the bin far more often than into the food waste caddy meaning neither food or packaging are recycled, but incinerated or buried in landfill.
Waste Minister Emma Hardy said: “I fully support Recycle Week and its aim to help people recycle more of the right things, more often.
“This government is making recycling simpler and more consistent by ending the postcode lottery for recycling services and ensuring households can recycle the same core materials wherever they live.
“This Recycle Week, I encourage everyone to check the Recycle Now Locator to see what can be recycled in their area and help keep more valuable materials in use for longer.”
