Inspiring action since 2004, Recycle Week is the nation’s biggest annual celebration of recycling, delivered by Recycle Now.
This year, Recycle Week (14-20 September) is showing people how their recycling truly makes a difference, and that it’s worth doing properly and Warwickshire County Council is proud to support the campaign through Warwickshire Recycles.
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.
To help bring this to life, the Recycle Week campaign stars a cast of recyclable characters, whose stories show how valuable they are, and why they’re worth rescuing from the rubbish. The line-up includes:
Shampers the shampoo bottle – who can be recycled into a plastic garden chair
Spritz the fragrance bottle – who could come back as a champagne bottle
Rolly the toilet roll tube – who can be turned into a notebook
Deo the aerosol – who could become part of a bike
Trigger the cleaning spray bottle – who can be recycled again into a new spray bottle
Yogi the yoghurt pot – who can come back as another yoghurt pot
Ally the kitchen foil – who can be recycled into part of a car engine
And, new for this year, Neil the banana peel who can be used to create green energy, and be recycled into fertiliser.
All these items can be recycled in Warwickshire, either at the kerbside or through Warwickshire’s HWRCs. Residents are reminded that recycling should be put in the bin loose, not in a bag and not stacked inside other items. It should also be rinsed, dry and whole, not squashed.
Councillor Darren Cheshire, Warwickshire County Council's Portfolio Holder for Environment, Heritage and Culture, said: “We are very fortunate here in Warwickshire that we have a very good recycling service at the kerbside. We can recycle a large number of household packaging items and paper and cardboard products, just by simply putting it in the one bin outside our house. We can be confident that these recyclable items go to a local facility to be sorted and then go on to the next stage of the recycling process within the UK.
“We also need to be mindful that we only put in our recycling bins what should correctly go in – adding the wrong items can be problematic, but it is easy to look up what is recyclable through your local council’s waste webpages.
“I want to thank all residents of Warwickshire and our partners in the District and Borough Councils for their continued efforts in recycling fully and correctly at home. Warwickshire is making great strides in recycling. By rescuing those missed items, we can make our recycling efforts even more impactful. It helps council funds go further, supports the UK recycling industry, reduces resource use and protects the environment.”
Catherine David, CEO, WRAP said “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, aerosol bottles 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.”
As part of Recycle Week, residents are being encouraged to return any unwanted community equipment through Warwickshire's Equipment Amnesty scheme. Items such as walking frames, shower chairs, commodes, beds, hoists and perching stools can be collected free by Medequip. Every year, local NHS and social care services lose thousands of pounds due to unreturned equipment. By returning items that are no longer needed, residents can help ensure equipment is safety checked, repaired, reused where possible, or responsibly recycled, benefiting both local services and the environment.
To find out more about Recycle Week this year, visit: www.recyclenow.com/recycle-week-2026
Find your local HWRC: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/hwrc
Residents can Follow Warwickshire Recycles on social media for daily tips:
On Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/warwickshire_recycles/
On Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/warwickshirerecycles