Inspiring action since 2004, Recycle Week is the nation’s biggest annual celebration of recycling, delivered by Recycle Now.
Each year, billions of items that could be recycled are put in the wrong bins around the UK. Each item that is recycled correctly helps save energy, and keeps valuable materials in circulation to be used again and again.
The themes of Recycle Week also reflect work currently being developed by KCC to help reduce contamination in recycling collections. Research shows that contamination is often caused by uncertainty rather than a lack of willingness to recycle, with residents often placing items in recycling bins in the hope they can be recycled.
Each year, billions of items that could be recycled are put in the wrong bins around the UK.
Last year, Kent managed 670,000 tonnes of waste, of which 280,000 tonnes was recycled. However, more than 45% of the general waste collected and disposed of was made up of materials that could have been recycled at home, including plastic pots, tubs and trays, paper, card and food waste.
A forthcoming county-wide campaign, 'Leave it Out', will focus on helping residents recycle with confidence by highlighting some of the most common items that should be left out of recycling bins, including soft plastics, textiles, wet wipes and food-soiled packaging.
Through a cast of mischievous 'Recycling Rebels' characters, the campaign will encourage residents to keep these items out of recycling bins and remember the simple rule of recycling clean, dry and loose.
“Recycle Week is a great opportunity to show how small actions can make a big difference.”
Jamie Henderson, Cabinet Member for Environment, Coastal Regeneration and Public Health, said: "Most people want to do the right thing when it comes to recycling, but it's easy to be caught out by items that don't belong in the recycling bin. Recycle Week is a great opportunity to show how small actions can make a big difference.
‘We're also working on a new campaign that will help residents recycle with confidence and avoid some of the most common recycling mistakes. By making sure recycling is clean, dry and loose, and leaving contaminating items out of the wrong bin, we can help more materials stay in circulation and be turned into something new."
Catherine David, CEO, WRAP says “Recycling is one of the easiest ways we can all help to divert millions of tonnes of waste from landfill and incineration, conserve scarce natural resources and cut carbon emissions. Each year millions of shampoo bottles, aluminium foil, toothpaste tubes and other recycling are binned when they could be recycled, so this Recycle Week we're asking people to be a hero at home and rescue more recycling. Together with local authorities and communities, we’re making it easier to keep these valuable materials in use and give our recycling a second life.”
To find out more about Recycle Week this year, visit: www.recyclenow.com/recycle-week-2026
About Recycle Week:
- First staged in 2004, Recycle Week is now the UK’s largest national annual recycling campaign. It’s a week where citizens, media, local governments, and brands come together to meet one goal; to galvanise everyone into recycling more of the right things, more often. hwww.recyclenow.com/recycle-week-2026
About Recycle Now:
- For more than twenty years, Recycle Now has encouraged and motivated citizens to recycle more things, more often, from around the home. Using ground-breaking research and behaviour change science, we develop interventions and campaigns to motivate citizens to change their behaviour. Recycle Now is the citizen facing recycling campaign of climate action NGO WRAP.
About WRAP:
- WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people’s day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people. Our work includes UK Packaging Pact, UK Food and Drink Pact, UK Textiles Pact and the global Food Pact Network and The Plastic Pact Network, and the campaigns Love Food Hate Waste and Recycle Now. We run Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week (Mon 14 to Sun 20 September).
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