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Recycle Week 2011 takes place between 20 - 26 June 2011

Campaign Overview

North East Recycle Week, which is part of the national campaign, takes place this year from the 20 - 26th June 2011.

The theme of this year's campaign will be Let's Recycle More with a focus on recycling wherever you are - at home, at work or out and about.

There are more facilities being introduced in many towns and cities to enable you to recycle paper and plastic bottles rather then binning it and therefore consigning it to landfill. 

Although three quarters of people now say that recycling is a way of life, they often forget to recycle waste from upstairs (think shampoo botttles, cardboard toothpaste cartons etc) or glass jars, even though they readily recycle glass bottles.

Glass
If we all recycle just 1 glass jar this week,  we will have avoided over 2,000 tonnes of equivalent CO2 emissions. Over a year this is the equivalent of the impact of taking more than 30,000 cars off the road.

Don't forget your pasta sauce jars. Rinse out the jar with used washing up water before recycling. 
Electrical and electronic items
If every household in the UK recycled one electric or electronic item an estimated 73,500 tonnes could be diverted from landfill, which would save the equivalent of 65,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions; the same impact as avoiding 9,500 round the world flights. Go to www.recyclenow.com and fill in the postcode locator to find your nearest electrical recycling point. If your item is still working, why not donate it to charity?
Clothing
Making one t-shirt uses 800 litres of water; if every UK household recycled just 2 t-shirts this year we'd save enough water to fill 16,000 Olympic sized swimming pools.
When sorting through unwanted clothing ask yourself the following questions:
Is it saleable? If so, pass it on to family or friends. Alternatively pass it to your local charity shop and they will sell it on to raise funds.
Could you re-use it? If it is worn out or damaged could the fabric be used for something else – a cushion cover or filling? Patchwork? Maybe it's time to get crafty?
If the item isn't suitable for giving away or re-using, take it to your local recycling site. Clothes deposited here are sorted and often shredded for use in mattresses or blankets.