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A new recycling checker taking the guesswork out of recycling, launches in Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire County Council and its waste and recycling partner Veolia are supporting residents in their efforts to recycle right by teaming up with Recycleopedia – developers of the UK’s most detailed recycling search tool.

The new recycling checker, available on the MyNotts app, will ensure that the right decision about which products can go in the recycling bin is always just a tap away.

Recycle Week (October 17-23), is the nation’s biggest annual celebration of recycling and this year’s theme is Let’s Get Real. This Recycle Week, Nottinghamshire County Council and Veolia are getting real about how we all improve our recycling by recycling more of the right products and avoiding putting the wrong products in the bin.

Recycling in the UK saves 18 million tonnes of Co2 a year – by recycling right we reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to climate change. More and more people across Nottinghamshire know that the better we recycle, the more we can all do to combat the effects of climate change.

Studies show that many people admit to ‘wishcycling’ which is when they put items in the recycling that they know are not accepted locally. The launch of the recycling checker on the My Notts app aims to encourage more people to recycle more of the right things, more often.

According to the Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP), people who frequently check where their recycling should go, perhaps surprisingly tend to create more contamination than those who guess. The likely reason is that people are looking for information in the wrong places. What may be recycled in one area of the UK may not be collected for recycling in another – or at least not in the same way.

By joining forces with Recycleopedia, Nottinghamshire County Council and its waste and recycling partner Veolia, hope to provide a one-stop shop of accurate information so all those best intentions actually translate to the best possible outcomes every time.

Councillor Neil Clarke MBE, Cabinet Member for Transport and Environment at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: 

“We’re delighted to launch the recycle checker on the MyNotts app in Nottinghamshire to make it easy for residents to find out what can be recycled where in the area they live. A quick check on the search tool will show you where different items can be recycled across the county.” 

The recycling checker allows users to search thousands of different products and items, each broken down into their component parts, to help them identify where and how they should be recycled or disposed of. So many Nottinghamshire residents are already making great use of their standard kerbside collections, but the recycling checker also covers many other ways to recycle items, including bring sites, such as bottle and clothing banks and recycling centres as well as asking whether the item could be reused and donated to a charity shop.

Steve Newman, General Manager for Veolia Nottinghamshire, said: 

“With the Local Government Association estimating that contaminated recycling costs councils around £48 million a year^[1], that’s a lot of money to be wasted by people meaning well but not quite hitting the mark. With this in mind, it’s great that we now have one location for everyone in Nottinghamshire to find out where different items can be recycled, so people check when they’re not sure rather than guessing.”

Martin Fuller, Partnerships Manager for Recycleopedia, said

“We are delighted to be working in partnership with Veolia and Nottinghamshire County Council to introduce the Recycleopedia database, which will help residents access over 15,000 items to quickly look up how to can recycle any of them in their postcode area”

If you’re ready to dive straight in and see how Recycleopedia can help your household recycling habits, visit MyNotts app | Nottinghamshire County Council to download the MyNotts app (also available from the App Store and Google Play Store ).

Or for more information about recycling in Nottinghamshire visit www.veolia.co.uk/nottinghamshire.