Make recycling your goal during the World Cup

Football fans in the Highlands, glued to their televisions watching the World Cup with a refreshment or two, are being urged to help recycle some of the extra waste they will generate during this summer’s tournament. 

The Highland Council is helping the Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) to promote the BIG Recycle for Scotland 2006, an annual event,  which kicked off on Monday 5 June  featuring the football theme: ‘Make Recycling Your Goal’.

Recycling in Highland is already on the increase and in 2005 19.9% of waste was recycled or composted.  The average Highland household recycled the equivalent weight of 30 World Cup trophies1 last year.

 Dr Colin Clark, Head of Waste Management, The Highland Council, said: “Fans in Highland will be creating extra waste as they watch the action, and so there is no better time to remind people to make recycling their goal.  Predictions suggest that around 4 million cans and bottles will be consumed in Highland alone – all of which can be recycled.

“The BIG Recycle for Scotland is a great opportunity to remind people just how easy it is to recycle. With more and more homes now having kerbside recycling collections, and increasing numbers of local recycling centres and points, recycling has never been more convenient.’’

As well as cans, glass and paper, the public can recycle a wide range of materials during the World Cup period and beyond.  To find out more about what, how and where you can recycle in Highland please visit www.www.highland.gov.uk, email recycle@highland.giv.uk or phone 01349 868439.

The Scottish Waste Awareness Group (SWAG) was set up in 2000 with the remit of changing public attitudes and behaviour towards household waste.  One of its key aims is to deliver the national campaign, Waste Aware Scotland. This campaign aims to raise awareness of, and change public attitudes and behaviour towards waste by promoting Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

1 The World Cup trophy weighs 6.175kg (source: FIFA).