Amid mounting concern about plastic litter, Keep Britain Tidy and Harrogate Water have launched a video aimed at encouraging consumers to recycle their plastic water bottles – which are 100 per cent recyclable.
An independent survey found that while the vast majority of bottled water drinkers recycle at home, this figure falls when people are on the go, when bottles are more likely to be discarded in rubbish bins.
The survey found that 90 per cent of bottled water consumers want to recycle more and say green issues are important to them; 95 per cent are likely to recycle at home but only 41 per cent are likely to recycle when out and about; 61 per cent are more likely to take rubbish home if it can be easily compacted and 70 per cent if it doesn’t make a mess, as is the case with bottled water.
The video, part of the The Incredible Shrinking Bottle initiative, shows how easy it is to twist and crush a plastic water bottle so that it is small enough to take home for recycling instead of being discarded in a street bin. Once in the recycling system, plastic water bottles can be turned into a multitude of new, useful items.
Keep Britain Tidy chief executive Allison Ogden-Newton said:
Bottled water consumers want to do the right thing and recycle, however the reality is that when people are away from home, most bottles are discarded in bins destined for landfill or incineration, which is a terrible waste of a valuable resource.
There is one thing we can all do now to change things and that is to recycle. A plastic water bottle is one of the best examples of easily-recyclable packaging, with every part of the product 100 per cent recyclable, including cap and label and all can be disposed of together, opening the door to a multitude of new uses.
Nicky Cain of Harrogate Water said:
We need a behavioural change and The Incredible Shrinking Bottle campaign challenges consumers to ‘twist it, cap it, recycle it’, making bottles small enough to take home for kerbside recycling. The solution is in all our hands.
Recycled plastic water bottles are remanufactured into a range of items including shoes, T-shirts, fleeces, shopping bags, outdoor furniture and plastic containers. It takes ten bottles of Harrogate Spring to make a T-shirt.
The Incredible Shrinking Bottle video is available to view on You Tube.
