Household recycling pledges toolkit

We're hoping to make Brighton & Hove a city that chooses to repair, recycle and reuse. All sorts of things would otherwise go to the landfill or be incinerated.

Volunteers started collecting pledges as part of our Circular Economy Champions scheme. The scheme has now finished but we still encourage you to collect pledges in your community. Every pledge helps us move towards a Circular Economy.

This information pack helps you pass on tips and information to family and friends. This can help keep things in circulation longer.

We have a linear economy. This means raw materials are made into products that consumers use until they discard them as waste. 

Pledges are new actions someone commits to, that support the development of a circular economy. This involves recycling, repairing, returning and reusing products for as long as possible.

These pledges can:

• save residents money
• save the council money to invest in other services
• support Circular Economy businesses that offer reuse and repair services in Brighton & Hove

You can:

• download pledge examples
• download a blank pledge form

Image source: The R Collective

In the linear economy, household waste is converted into a reusable material at the ‘get rid’ stage. While this means the waste doesn't end up in landfill or energy recovery straight away, energy and materials are still needed to recycle.

For most materials there's a limited number of times that material can be recycled before it needs to be thrown away. 

In a circular economy, rather than waiting until the ‘get rid’ stage, extending the products' life is possible at the creation stage. This prevents waste and pollution.

A circular economy:

• reduces the materials used
• makes the production less resource intensive
• recaptures waste as a resource to manufacture new products without the use of virgin materials at the end of the products' life

Today’s plastic packaging material flows are mostly linear.

We produce 78 million tonnes of plastic a year. 98% of this is virgin materials and only 2% comes from a closed loop recycling cycle.

A lot of the plastic we create, we use only once before throwing away.

Of the plastic we create:

• we send 40% to landfill
• we send 14% to energy recovery or incineration
• 32% leaks back into our environment

We collect 14% of plastics for recycling, but we loose 4% of this material through process losses. This is the difference between the amount entering a facility and the amount leaving it. 8% is processed through cascaded recycling which utilises open, closed and chemical recycling.

The circular economy is a system where we use materials, but we don't use them up. 

We should design products to make sure:

• materials are not lost
• toxins are not leaked
• we use every process, material and component to their maximum

We should source virgin materials in a renewable way, and only once before they're designed. They should be produced in a way which allows for one of the following after use - in order of preference:

• anaerobic digestion or composting
• reuse
• separation for other material streams
• recycling that maintains or improves quality

Image source: The waste hierarchy London School of Economics and Political Science

As part of this toolkit, you’ll receive a form for collecting and monitoring pledges.

When you collect pledges, encourage people to prioritise the most preferred options like reduce and reuse. 

On the household recycling pledge form, we’ve given examples of actions residents could take. We've listed actions with the greatest impact first. For example - buying loose and package free groceries are listed first, followed by subscribe to a recycling service.

Some suggestions for pledge examples are:

1. I'll stop buying fruit and vegetables in plastic packaging, I will only buy loose.
2. I'll avoid buying new plastic bags for my shopping, I'll take an old one from that cupboard we all have full of bags.
3. I'll avoid putting non-recyclable items in recycling bins and check with my Local Authority about what they can recycle.
4. I'll reduce my plastic consumption, by using refill stations for things like hair and body washes, cooking oils and nut butters.
5. I'll reduce materials sent to incineration by using recycling services like Magpie and Supermarket soft plastics recycling.
6. I'll reduce recycling contamination by removing any residue of non-recyclable materials from my recycling.
7. I'll reuse milk bottles as watering cans by puncturing the lid.
8. I'll reuse Jars, containers, and beauty containers at refill stations.
9. I'll reuse cardboard tubes from loo rolls filled with potting mix or compost to sow seeds in, instead of plastic trays.
10. I'll save laddered tights and use them for hanging cabbages and onions in cool, airy and dark places.
11. I'll start using bars instead of bottled hair and body wash.
12. I'll replace my single use coffee cups with a cup for life.
13. I'll start using a reusable water bottle, which can be refilled at various places in the city.
14. I'll replace single use make-up remover wipes with washable ones.
15. I'll replace cling film with beeswax wraps.
16. I'll start using reusable alternatives such as menstrual cups, period pants, or reusable sanitary pads.
17. I'll use the Green Centre and Magpie recycling service to recycle household items which BHCC cannot recycle.
18. I'll take items which can be resold to Shabitat and St Emmaus.
19. I'll donate working and broken household electricals to Tech-Takeback/ Revaluit so they can be used again.
20. I'll begin using supermarket soft plastic recycling schemes.

You can also:

• download the pledge examples
• download a blank pledge form

Talking to neighbours, or close friends, about their habits and behaviours can be challenging. 

It’s good to use open questions, to avoid suggesting a right or wrong way to do things. This helps people to trust you and not feel judged

Try one of these questions to start a conversation.

1. Do you buy products based on what their packaging is made of?
2. Have you ever stopped buying something because it’s not recyclable?
3. Do you ever re-use materials, rather than recycling them or throwing them away?
4. Did you know aerosol cans are recycled in Brighton and Hove?
5. Do you know what plastics are recyclable in Brighton & Hove?
6. Do you utilise any other forms of recycling other than through the Council?

When collecting pledges, feel free to use any of these top facts to help better inform people’s choices about household consumption, reuse, repair and recycling.

Glass Recycling

Domestic waste glass, known as cullet, is easy to recycle. The UK currently recycles around 71% of container glass, like bottles and jars. The glass sector is working towards a 90% collection rate for glass by 2030.

Each tonne of cullet added to the furnace saves 1.2 tonnes of raw materials.

Each time one tonne of glass is recycled, about 580kg CO2 is saved throughout the supply chain, air pollution is reduced by 20% and water pollution cut by 50%

The energy saved from recycling 1 glass bottle is enough a power a light bulb for four hours.

Different types of glass include:

• borosilicate glass - used for heat-resistant cooking equipment like Pyrex
• lead glass - for sparkling decorative glassware
• glass fibre - for insulation and fibre optic cable

These different types of glass are not widely recycled. It is better not to add these into your kerbside collection container or bottle banks at the recycling centre.

DMR (Dry Mixed Recycling)

Paper and cardboard

Every tonne of paper recycled saves 17 trees.

Egg boxes and kitchen towel and toilet rolls can be recycled.

Around 80% of UK-made paper utilises recovered paper which is by far the biggest source of recyclate from domestic waste streams.

Plastic

We now use about 20 times more plastic than we did 50 years ago.

Nearly all types of plastics can be recycled. However, the extent to which they are recycled depends upon technical, economic and logistic factors.

There are many different types of plastic including that used to make flexible pouches. This requires new technology before we are able to recycle it effectively.

Compostable plastics should not go in with your dry recycling because hey can't be recycled in the same way as non-biodegradable plastic.

Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W light bulb for up to 6 hours.

Recycling 1 tonne of plastic bottles saves 1.5 tonne of carbon.

Plastic pots, tubs and trays cannot be recycled in your household recycling.

Cans

In the UK we throw away 13 billion steel cans every year. If you stack these on top of each other, you could make 3 piles of cans that would reach to the moon.

The energy saved by recycling 1 aluminium drink can is enough to run a television for three hours.

Recycling aluminium uses only around 5% of the energy and emissions needed to make it from the raw material bauxite.

Used cans are often recycled, made into new cans, filled and put back on the shelf in just six weeks.

There are also some National changes coming up which will impact household recycling, including:

• Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• deposit return schemes
• tax on plastic packaging with less than 30% of recycled content
• consistency in Local Authority collections like introducing weekly food waste collections
• the UK government recently affirming that its policies remain aligned to the EU’s Circular Economy Package - part of this is to achieve a 65% municipal recycling rate by 2035

There are lots of ways to recycle materials in Brighton & Hove. Some of these are organised by Brighton & Hove City Council, and some organised by external organisations.

Brighton & Hove City Council services include:

• recycling A-Z - a guide to recycling in Brighton & Hove
• recycling points - what you can take to our recycling points and where they are
• carton recycling points - our carton or Tetra Pak recycling points in the city and how to get cartons ready for recycling
• WEEE Recycling points - where to take small electrical items, like toasters, kettles and hairdryers
• textile recycling points - where to take unwanted clothes, shoes and textiles, and how doing so supports the local community
• household waste recycling sites - a variety of additional items can be recycled at our HWRS sites, including garden waste, bulky items and paint

Other organisations include:

• plastic free and naked shops - where to buy products without packaging
• Tech Takeback - can collect almost any small item with a plug, battery or cable - working or broken
• The Green Centre - a free service in The Open Market, can accept various materials for recycling, see website for opening days
• Magpie Recycling - a chargeable recycling service that recycles pots, tubs, and trays, which B&HCC can't accept
• Freegle, Greencycle - a network where items can be given away or sold instead of thrown away
• Terracycle - a chargeable service that recycles brand-specific waste with drop points and a collection by post service

However you choose to collect pledges, it's important to think about Health and Safety.

The table below shows some common considerations for any activity.

Publications

• Your recycling could be contaminated. This is why you should care - Huffington post
• Wrongly placed recycling costs Brighton taxpayers over £150,000 - The Argus

Upcoming changes

• New plans unveiled to boost recycling - GOV.UK

Learn more about recycling

• How to recycle - recyclenow.com
• What happens to our waste? - East Sussex County Council
• Recycling Tracker Report 2021 - Wrap.org

Get involved

Recycle Week - the nation’s annual celebration of recycling - Wrap.org