From shampoo bottles to parcel boxes - deodorant sprays to yoghurt pots - the items we throw away are surprisingly valuable and on Global Recycling Day Recycle Now is warning that when we bin recycling, we’re literally throwing away hundreds of pounds every week.
The warning comes ahead of incoming Simpler Recycling reforms to collections in England, which start from 31st March 2026. From that date, local authorities will begin to collect a core range of items including plastic pots, tubs, trays and bottles, cartons, card and paper, metal packaging from aerosols to tin cans, glass bottles and jars, and a weekly food waste collection. Households will recycle consistently across the country making it easier to recapture the value in our ‘rubbish’, which can be huge.
As well as money made from selling recycling, money is also saved from not having to dispose of it. Current prices show that one tonne of clear glass could be sold for between £7-£39 for recycling and avoids incineration costs of a further £92–£110 per tonne, that’s a total benefit of £99–£149 for every tonne collected. Once separated, coloured HDPE plastic bottles used for bleach, detergent, cleaning products or shampoo can fetch between £220 to £320 per tonne.
But with the latest Recycle Now citizen survey showing that most households routinely bin 2.5 items each week - which could be recycled - the campaign is keen to show how much money we’re collectively throwing away, which could be used elsewhere.
Hannah Jarratt, Marketing and Campaigns Lead at WRAP which manages Recycle Now explains, “We’re a nation of recyclers, with 9 in 10 people regularly recycling but our research shows that many of us are still binning items we could recycle. 80% of us put recyclable items in with rubbish every week. Most households are throwing away an average of 2.5 recyclable items, that’s 2.3 billion binned every year which could be recycled. Commonly these include aluminium foil, shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes, trigger sprays, aerosols, yoghurt pots, aftershave and perfume bottles, and toilet roll tubes.”
Recycle from every room
Recycle Now is highlighting the forgotten hotspots around the house where recycling is often missed. While kitchens are a big focus of recycling, bathrooms are full of recyclable items often binned including shampoo bottles, aerosols, toothpaste tubes and cardboard packaging. Bedrooms hold many textile and cosmetics that can be recycled through collections and takeback schemes and local drop-off points, while living rooms can house a trove of small electricals commonly thrown away, or left unused in drawers that contain valuable materials.
Circular Economy Minister Creagh said, "Recycling isn't just good for the planet - it's good for our economy and it saves energy.
"As we mark Global Recycling Day, we are determined to tackle waste and make it simpler for households to recycle consistently.
"Through Simpler Recycling, we will recover the enormous value locked up in the items we throw away every day and build a cleaner, greener economy that works for everyone."
Simpler Recycling represents the biggest shift in household recycling in England in over twenty years. Separate food waste collections across England could boost recycling rates by around five percentage points, helping close the gap to the UK’s 65% recycling target. The impact of food waste at home is huge. UK households waste £17billion of food every year, which breaks down to £1,000 for the average household of four.
Tips for Global Recycling Day
- Metals - tinfoil can be recycled indefinitely. When you’ve finished cooking with foil or peeled off a foil top scrunch it into a ball - when that’s as big as a tennis ball pop it in the recycling. Aluminium drinks cans can be recycled, filled, and back on a shelf within 8 weeks.
- Glass - recycling one tonne of glass saves about 580kg CO2 throughout the supply chain and reduces air pollution by 20%, and water pollution by 50%. Recycling a tonne of glass saves the same amount of carbon as you would emit from driving 2,225 miles in a car - as far as London to Cairo.
- Cardboard and paper – One extra toilet roll tube recycled each week by every home could save enough energy to power over 26,000 households for a year.
- Plastics - your shampoo, shower gel and conditioner bottles can be recycled. One extra bottle recycled each week by every home could save enough energy to power more than 230,000 homes a year – almost enough to power Edinburgh. One extra trigger spray bottle recycled each week by every home could save enough energy to power every home in Birmingham, for a year.
Recycle Week 2026 will run from Monday 14 to Sunday 20 September in the UK when the annual behavioural change campaign will work with local authorities and businesses to help people recycle more.