Why recycle?
Recycling is easy. And in the modern world it is also essential.
Every year the residents of Buckinghamshire throw away 275,000 tonnes of rubbish. That's nearly half a tonne of rubbish each!
But over half of this waste isn't rubbish at all! Much of it is simple to recycle and turn into new products, and the facilities are in place to help us to do just that. Indeed you'd be amazed at what your recycled materials can be turned into.
While the people of Buckinghamshire are good at recycling, we could still do a lot more. On average we recycle 35% of our rubbish, yet some areas of the UK manage to recycle over 40% of theirs! Other countries in Europe do even more than that.
And where does all that rubbish go? Over 65% of the household waste generated in Bucks each year, goes straight to landfill sites in Buckinghamshire.
Nobody wants all that rubbish buried beneath their feet. It's bad for the environment. It's bad for the future of the county and it's also bad for your wallet! Putting waste into landfill is expensive, and as available space runs out the cost goes up and up. And that money has to come from somewhere...
Recycling allows materials to be used again to make useful products. It can take as little as six weeks to turn things you recycle into a new product, which can be bought and recycled again. Not only will you feel better about yourself but you will be helping save valuable natural resources and also your local environment.
Buckinghamshire is doing its bit to help. We are supporting the national RecycleNow campaign by making sure every household in the county has a recycling box (if you haven't got one, go here to order one), and we have recycling recycling collection schemes across the whole county. Now we need you to help us recycle more.
