As part of Recycle Week 2014, which runs until Sunday (22 June), Closed Loop Recycling has announced a new initiative to recognise the work that local authorities undertake to increase recycling rates in light of the ‘plateauing recycling rates in UK’.

The Recycling Champions initiative aims to ‘champion local authorities and the good work they do in driving up recycling rates’.

The initiative comes as part of Closed Loop Recycling’s wider campaign, We Need Your Bottles. Originally launched in 2012, the campaign is designed to ‘raise awareness throughout the waste and recycling supply chain of the benefits of recycling more plastic bottles, not just for the environment but also for green job creation and the wider UK economy’.

Local authorities are therefore being encouraged to nominate their own Recycling Champions, from waste officers, contractors or even a member of the public, to highlight the good work that they do in their community to promote UK recycling.

Shepway District Council recycles 45 per cent of waste

Chris Dow, CEO of Closed Loop Recycling, highlighted the work that Shepway District Council, part of the Kent Resource Partnership, has undertaken in increasing recycling rates as an example of Recycling Champions.

According to statistics, Shepway has increased its recycling rates by over a third to approximately 45 per cent in three years from 2011; this compares to the national average during the same period of 13 per cent.

Closed Loop highlighted that, in partnership with Dover District Council, Shepway sent less than 0.4 per cent of its waste to be processed abroad as part of a move to ‘back British recycling’.

Shepway Recycling Club

The Shepway Recycling Club was launched in 2013 and has been highlighted as the driving force of the increased recycling rates.

The scheme primarily aims to ‘increase recycling rates by building a community of like-minded residents who care about their environment and wish to cut waste’.

Visits to both Aylesford Newsprint and Closed Loop Recycling in Dagenham have helped ‘residents can see for themselves what happens to the valuable resources collected from Shepway homes’, according to Closed Loop.

“Everyone is part of the solution”

Speaking about the scheme, Shepway Councillor Rory Love, Conservative Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “Our Recycling Club has empowered the people of Shepway to make a difference by becoming recycling champions themselves and enthusiastically spreading the word amongst their neighbours, families and friends.

“Everyone is part of the solution and our partnership with Veolia and recyclers like Closed Loop Recycling is very much evidence of what can be done if all parties work together.”

Commenting on the success of Shepway’s Recycling Club, Dow, added: “If this can be replicated in every local authority in Britain, achieving a 50 per cent recycling rate by 2020 will surely be achievable.

“That’s why we want to recognise local authority recycling champions like Rory Love and the team at Shepway, who clearly understand that only by working together can we reverse the recycling rate plateau and meet the 2020 targets.”

Read more about Closed Loop Recycling, or nominate a Recycling Champion.