- Suffolk Waste Partnership is supporting this year’s Recycle Week campaign
- The campaign shows how recycling makes a big difference – and how to do it properly
- In Suffolk, 6,500 tonnes of food waste have been collected in three months, since the launch of Better Recycling. That’s the same weight as 464 double decker buses!
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 the Suffolk Waste Partnership (SWP) is proud to support the campaign.
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 lineup 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.
In Suffolk, all homes have a green lidded recycling bin and a blue lidded recycling bin, as well as a weekly food waste collection.
The following items can be recycled in your green lidded recycling bin:
- Cardboard boxes (please flatten first)
- Cardboard packaging
- Letters, envelopes and other papers
- Newspapers and magazines
- Shredded paper
- Books – hardback and paperback
The following items can go in your blue lidded recycling bin:
- Plastic pots, tubs and trays
- Plastic carrier bags, film, wrapping and bubble wrap
- Plastic bottles
- Glass bottles and jars
- Drinks cartons (Tetra Pak)
- Metal cans and aerosols
- Tin foil and foil trays
Almost all food waste can go in your food caddy, including leftover food, bread, meat, fish and bones, fruit and veg, cheese and eggs (including shells) and pet food. However, you should keep any packaging, oils, milks or other liquids out of your food caddy. Your food waste is then taken to Anaerobic Digestion facilities where it is converted into a biogas and a biofertiliser.
The SWP is taking part in Recycle Week to help our community make the little changes that have a big impact.
The SWP will also be posting on social media throughout Recycle Week to explain what happens to the items Suffolk residents place in their bins each week.
Waste Minister, Emma Hardy, says:
“I fully support Recycle Week and its aim to help people recycle more of the right things, more often.
"This government is making recycling simpler and more consistent by ending the postcode lottery for recycling services and ensuring households can recycle the same core materials wherever they live.
"This Recycle Week, I encourage everyone to check the Recycle Now Locator to see what can be recycled in their area and help keep more valuable materials in use for longer.”
Catherine David, CEO, WRAP, says:
“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 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.”
Rob Cole, Suffolk Waste Partnership Manager, says:
“The response from Suffolk residents to Better Recycling has been fantastic. Since its launch in June 2026, households have recycled more than ever before, with over 6,500 tonnes of food waste collected in just three months, that’s the same weight as 464 double decker buses! We’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone for helping Suffolk reduce our waste and make better use of valuable resources.”
To find out more about Recycle Week this year.
To find out more about Suffolk’s waste and recycling services.
