Recycled Week Blog: How Can We Improve Our Recycling Habits?

The Thought: This week is ‘Recycle Week 2022’, seven days dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of recycling, inspiring people to get involved, tackling myths around recycling and sharing tips and info to make it easier. Now in its nineteenth year, Recycle Week, is the nation’s biggest annual celebration of recycling. This year’s theme is all about showing how important recycling really is in the battle against climate change.

The Feeling: Improving our recycling habits is a great example of a small change we can all make to do our bit, and research shows it’s something that people do want to engage with. Last year, 82% of people who saw the recycle week campaign said that they had changed their habits as a result. As part of our own recycle week engagement, we have put together some tips to help you recycle more effectively, so read on if you want a little help learning to reduce, reuse and recycle.

The Actions:

Firstly, Reuse things

• If you have plastic bags, reuse them and extend their life cycle. The same goes for packaging from online orders or wrapping paper – just unpack carefully and you can use the box, bag or paper again. This will save you money too!
• And, buy reusable things so you don’t have to keep consuming. This goes for coffee cups and cutlery in particular. The UK throws about 2.5 billion disposable coffee cups every year, half a million are littered every day and only 1% are recycled. England also gets through about 4.25 billion pieces of disposable cutlery every year. So, pop a reusable cup in your handbag and keep reusable cutlery in your desk drawer, we need to do better.

Secondly, make recycling easy and accessible

• Know what can be recycled, where and how to do it. Check your local authority website for tips on this, and to find out your nearest recycling points. Lots of areas do recycling pick-ups, you just need to sign up and let them know your location.
• Within the home, make sure your recycling bin is in the kitchen or somewhere easy to access, you’re much more likely to recycle if its minimal effort to do.

Thirdly, buy recycled goods and recycle yourself! 

• These days so many things are made out of recycled paper and plastics and it is a lot better for the environment. For example, using old paper to make paper uses 30-50% less energy than making new paper from trees. So, check how your items are made, and support businesses that use recycled materials.
• Donate Your Clothes to Charity. Through our partnership with TRAID, you can donate your pre-loved clothing easily. Just go online and print off your pre-paid label, then send any clothes you don’t wear anymore off for a new lease of life. 
• You can also get paid for donating unwanted books, CD’s, games and DVD’s with Zapper. Selling these items rather than just throwing them in the bin when you de-clutter will prevent them going into landfill.

Finally, extend your new recycling habits to your wardrobe...

This season we have introduced GRS standard recycled materials for some of our garments. This is the gold standard for recycled fabric and we’re really proud of these pieces. From the new activewear range made out of PET plastic bottles, to our knitwear and outerwear made from recycled nylon and PET, check out some of our favourite pieces below.

Shop the Lelah GRS Recycled Polyester Sports Bra in Lichen Green

Shop the Lelah GRS Recycled Polyester Sports Bike Shorts

Shop the Lucille Organic Cotton Fluffy Balloon Sleeve Jumper in Burnt Sugar Brown - also made with recycled nylon and recycled polyester

Shop the Ellison GRS Recycled Polyester Puffer Jacket