Recycle Now’s Recycle Week is the nation’s biggest annual celebration of recycling.

The aim is to challenge perceptions and myths around recycling, and target ‘contamination’ (when non-recyclable items are incorrectly put in recycling bins) to improve recycling behaviours.

We will be using our social media channels throughout the week to reveal day-by-day, the positive impact recycling different items can have on the environment and the realities of wasting valuable resources that can become new materials.

In the UK alone, recycling saves around 10-15 million tonnes of carbon emissions a year – this is the equivalent of taking 3.5 million cars off the road!

Merton is currently ranked #7 in the London recycling leader boards – with a recycling rate of 40.8%.

Cllr Natasha Irons, Cabinet Member for Local Environment, Green Spaces and Climate Change said:

“Recycling is a great way to help the environment and make better use of our precious resources.”

“We are committed to making it as easy as possible for residents to recycle with our doorstep weekly recycling collections.”

“I am very proud that recycling rates in Merton are at record levels and we’re ranked seventh in the London recycling leader boards but there is still more to do. A recent study found that more than half of the items in a typical Merton rubbish bin could have been recycled using the council’s free doorstep recycling collection service.”

“I am encouraging all Merton residents to reduce their waste and recycle even more this year.”