Vera named recycler of the month

Alderman Arnold Hatch, Chair of the Environmental Services Committee, presents the Craigavon Borough Council Recycler of the Month award for May to Vera Delaney of Garrymore, Craigavon, watched by Recycling Officer Conor Kenny. RicPics. 17/6/13.

Vera was presented with her £50 prize on the first day of Recycle Week which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

Recycle Week 2013, which takes place between June 17 to 23, was originally launched as ‘The Big Recycle’. The annual event has helped play an important role in helping to spread messages about recycling to consumers across the UK and has seen huge improvements in how much, and what, householders recycle.

“Recycling rates in Craigavon have risen from around 18per cent in 2003 to 43 per cent by 2012 this is great news but we still have a long way to go.

“One of the main aims of Recycle Week is to show that there is still more we can all do to recycle more things, more often. The Recycler of the Month Council competition which is supported by the Department of the Environment’s Rethink Waste campaign is a great incentive to people and encourages them to think about what they are recycling,” said chairperson of the environmental services committee, Alderman Arnold Hatch.

Over the past decade, the UK has recycled 50 billion plastic drinks bottles – enough to stretch to the moon and back more than 10 times over. Householders are now recycling more than 50 per cent of plastic bottles – great news, but that means there’s around 50 per cent still ending up in landfill. This year the national event is designed to encourage people to recycle even more than ever before.

Over the last ten years in the borough, the council has introduced 38,000 green bins for the recycling of card, paper, plastic bottles, tins cans, yoghurt pots and margarine tubs. A food waste collection scheme to 3,000 households and a food and garden waste scheme to 24,000 households has also been introduced. The council’s recycling centres have also increased the number of materials accepted for recycling to include, household batteries, fluorescent tubes, cooking oil, paint and hard plastic and the number of bottle banks sites located in the borough has increased from 10 to 22.

A council spokesperson explained: “Not only is this good news for the environment as it means less waste is being sent to landfill and better use is being made of natural resources, it is also hugely important for the economy.

“The UK recycling sector now generates more than £13 billion a year in sales, employs more than 40,000 people and contributes around £3 billion-worth of additional value each year to the UK economy.”