Recycle more

Recycle more...

Help us to ‘Recycle more…’, send less to landfill and reach our zero carbon targets!

Recycle more… aims to encourage residents and businesses in our district to recycle more materials, more often. Together we can reach our goal of a 50% recycling rate with our three year plan.

The journey so far...

• In 2019/20 our recycling rate increased from 45% to 46.3% - thank you for recycling as much as you can! 
• Our Recycle more... project was one of just three finalists in the Awards for Excellence in Recycling and Waste Management! We entered into the highly contested 'Best Local Authority Recycling Initiative' category. 
• A weekly food waste collection trial launched for 2000 households in Measham and some surrounding villages in November 2019. The trial has since expanded to 4000 households in Coalville, Ravenstone and Whitwick. We've collected around 200 tonnes of food waste so far which has been recycled into biogas and a bio-fertiliser. That's a CO2 saving of around 150 tonnes! Find out more.
• 250 households are currently trialling a new recycling trolley in an attempt to make recycling easier and more convenient going forward. We're also preparing for a second recycling trolley trial, find out more below!
• Awareness is being raised about what can and can’t be recycled, where it goes and the consequences of not recycling. We've been doing this through social media, leaflets, school assemblies and community talks.
• A kerbside collection of batteries and old mobile phones was introduced for residents in December 2019. Almost 6 tonnes of batteries have been collected since!
• Our recycling lorries now display a variety of educational messaging about recycling
• Around 43,000 crisp packets have been collected at the council offices and recycled through a TerraCycle scheme
• Primary school pupils in the district recently took part in a competition to name our recycling lorries. Read more below.

Recycle more year one achievements infographic (PDF Document, 1.9 Mb)

New recycling trolley trial

Over 4,000 people have registered their interest in trialling a new recycling trolley! We're now in the process of selecting just 250 volunteers to try it out, successful volunteers wil be contacted in due course.

Recycling trolley features:

• Similar size to a 240 litre wheelie bin
• Option to choose how many drawers to use for each type of recycling (stickers will be provided)
• Extra red boxes, yellow bags & blue bags can be used alongside it if needed.

You may be aware we are also currently trialling another recycling trolley. Once both trials have run, we will evaluate feedback from volunteers and our crews to decide whether one of the trollies could be offered as an alternative to the current box/bag system.

What’s next?

• The food waste collection trial will continue to run before being reviewed later this year. A report will then be taken to Cabinet for a decision on whether to roll the collections out to everyone.
• After both recycling trolley trials have run, we'll then need to review both trials to decide if one of the recycling trollies could be used as an alternative to the boxes and bags.
• We're reviewing the mini recycling sites (e.g. bottle banks) in the district. We recently ran a survey for you to provide your comments, feedback and suggestions about these sites. We now need to look at the results and create a plan for improving the mini recycling sites.
• We’re exploring the idea of a council app for you to easily access your waste collection calendars, information about recycling and other council services.

Bindiana Jones… Recyclosaurus Rex… Meet our recycling lorries!

Back in 2020 we invited local primary schools to take part in a competition to name six of our recycling lorries. To enter, each pupil had to colour in an image of a recycling lorry and give it a name.

After receiving more than 300 entries and lots of fantastic names, we had to pick just six winners. The winning names are:

• Riley the Recycler – Daniel Mander, age 9, Ibstock Junior School
• Bindiana Jones – Alfie Stewart, age 10, Orchard Community Primary School (Castle Donington)
• Recycle Rockstar – Amelia, Diseworth C of E Primary School
• Recycling Rita – Lalana Oldershaw-Gillan, age 10, St Charles' Catholic Primary School (Measham)
• Recyclosaurus Rex – Bailey Dutton, age 5, Ashby Hill Top Primary School
• Captain Recycle – Esme Pellecchia, age 10, Ashby Willesley Primary School

The recycling lorries display the winning names on the cab doors and on the back of the vehicles. Keep an eye out to see them collecting your separated glass, plastic/cans/tins, paper, textiles, batteries and mobile phones!

Let's create a greener and more sustainable district for everyone. Take a look at the related documents below to see how we plan to achieve this, and let us know how we can help you Recycle more...