A campaign is to be launched to encourage even higher levels of household recycling in County Durham.
Durham County Council has secured almost £31,000 from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to promote its national Recycle Now ‘Good to Know’ campaign locally.
The council will promote the six month long Good to Know campaign from next Monday, 22 February.
The campaign aims to raise awareness of the different types of materials that can be recycled from different rooms of the home in the blue lidded recycling bins and recycling boxes, including those from which WRAP believes recycling rates are lower.
Good to Know will see the council’s strategic waste team getting the message out at school assemblies and roadshows, through social media, knocking on doors and handing out leaflets.
The campaign message will also be advertised in newspapers and on the back of buses as well as on radio.
Officers will also be giving out bin stickers and putting stickers on recyclable items in Durham’s Sainsbury’s store.
Around half of the population already recycle and the campaign aims to encourage people to do more by highlighting the benefits.
For example, one drinks can could save enough energy to power a TV for four hours and plastic bottles can be recycled and made into a chair.
Alan Patrickson, the council’s head of projects and business services, said: “More than six out of ten of us now describe ourselves as committed recyclers but that doesn’t mean that we can’t do more.
“This campaign will raise awareness about the products people might still be unsure of and help those that already do their part to recycle extra items and different materials that they might not have thought of.”
Good to Know will run alongside the council’s ongoing Bin it Right campaign, which aims to get people to put the right items in the right bin to stop recyclable material being contaminated and made unusable.