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Newry, Mourne and Down District Council is taking part in Recycle Week, the nation's biggest annual celebration of recycling, which runs until Sunday 20 September. Delivered by Recycle Now, the initiative aims to show people how their recycling makes a difference and why it is worth doing properly.
Each year billions of items that could be recycled are put in the wrong bins, and the council says every item recycled correctly helps save energy and keeps valuable materials in circulation to be used again and again.
This year's Recycle Week campaign features a cast of recyclable characters whose stories show how valuable they are and why they are worth rescuing from the rubbish. They include Shampers the shampoo bottle, who can be recycled into a plastic garden chair, Spritz the perfume bottle, who could come back as a champagne bottle, and Rolly the toilet roll tube, who can be turned into a notebook. Deo the aerosol could become part of a bike, Trigger the cleaning spray bottle can be recycled again into a new spray bottle, Yogi the yoghurt pot can come back as another yoghurt pot, and Ally the kitchen foil can be recycled into part of a car engine.
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Chairperson, Councillor Glyn Hanna, said: "I would like to extend a big thank you to all the residents of Newry, Mourne and Down who continue to support our recycling efforts.
"Of course, we are always striving to do better. The 'Rescue Your Recyclables' social media campaign highlights seven everyday packaging items that are often missed or placed in the wrong bin. All of these items, represented by the fun characters used in the campaign, can be easily recycled in the household blue/green bin."
Cllr Hanna added: "I strongly encourage all our residents to watch out for the campaign on our social media channels, during Recycle Week, and ensure these items are placed in the blue/green bin so that we can continue together to make our recycling efforts even more impactful."
The council is advising residents to put all items into their blue/green wheelie bin clean, dry and loose, making sure all food and liquid are removed, and to separate materials where possible.
Catherine David, CEO of the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), said: "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, clean 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."
More information is available at www.recyclenow.com/recycle-week-2026.
