Global Recycling Day: Interesting Recycling Schemes

Although recycling ranks low on the 5 Rs of zero waste it is still an important part of promoting a circular economy and protecting the Earths resources. Called the 7th resource by the Bureau of International Recycling, recycling offers us the chance to reuse materials. At the end of last year Nature declared that global human-made mass now exceeds all living biomass on Earth, so it seems there has never been a more important time to ensure we are utilising and making the most of our human made creations. Today marks Global Recycling Day 2021, with Recycling Heroes as this years theme. With this in mind we thought we would share some recycling schemes we have used and also a few that have caught our eye:

Check out Terracycle, a global leader in recycling typically hard-to-recycle waste, they offer a number of free recycling programs across the UK. (You can also read about how we use Terracycle to make sure Incredible Bulk is zero waste as a business and also the recycling we offer while you refill thanks to Terracycle).

We also use Packshare sometimes that allows you to share unwanted packaging with people who are looking for packaging. (More of a reuse than recycle but its a helpful service!)

For printer ink cartridges we often use The Recycling Factory to send off our used ink cartridges to get recycled.

Recycle Box offer free recycling of plastic spray triggers and soap pumps, typically not recycled in curbside recycling, this scheme is looking to clean and reuse items sent. They also offer free wellington boot recycling.

Stay Wild Swim have their own Circularity Project where you can send them any broken and unwearable swimwear to be recycled and repurposed into eco-industrial products.

Rerun Clothing are looking to extend the life of running clothes and equipment (again less recycle and more repair/upcycle), there’s a donation base in Truro if you would like to donate any unwanted items.

Cloud 9 offer a free recycling scheme for unwanted hair styling tools.

WeeeCharity recycle new, used, non working and broken electrical items.

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