With Scotland set to celebrate Recycle Week later this year Cabinet Secretary for the Environment Roseanna Cunningham is asking Edinburgh residents to get involved.
Recycle Week, which is co-ordinated by Zero Waste Scotland, will run from 12 – 18 September and will aim to get everyone recycling more by raising awareness of the benefits and promoting easy ways to do more.
In the run up to the week, local authorities, businesses, community groups, schools and colleges in Edinburgh are being encouraged to get involved and take action to help boost recycling.
Roseanna Cunningham, Cabinet Secretary for Environment said: “We’re lucky to be blessed with a stunning environment, which is one of our most precious assets. It’s crucial that we protect our natural resources and make best use of the world’s limited supplies of raw materials. We have a real opportunity to do this and benefit from growing a more circular economy in Scotland, where we keep products and materials in valuable use for longer.
“We’ve made great progress increasing recycling in recent years. For example in 2010 only 12 percent of households had food waste collections, while new figures show that has increased to 75 percent. It has never been easier to recycle your waste, but we still have further to go.
“People and communities in Edinburgh have a role to play and this September we’ll be encouraging more folk to pick up the recycling habit and do their bit for the environment.”
Iain Gulland, Chief Executive, Zero Waste Scotland said: “Recycle Week is all about getting as many people in Scotland as possible aware of the need to recycle more and to recycle better.
“More people than ever are recycling, especially in relation to food waste, which has a huge environmental impact. But we can all be better at it, and during Recycle Week we’ll be highlighting the importance of doing our bit – providing advice on what and how to recycle best and exploding some of the myths in the process, with a series of high profile events and activities. I hope as many people as possible will get involved.”
To find out more and to access the Recycle Week partners guide and materials visit www.recycleforscotland.com/recycle-week-2016
Scots can follow activity and share messages throughout the week on the Recycle for Scotland Facebook page or using the #RecycleWeekScot on Twitter.