COUNCIL bosses have praised all regular recyclers as rates throughout the borough continue to rise.

Monday marked the start of the UK-wide Recycle Week and Wigan Council is thanking households for the continued improvements during what has been uncertain times for families.

The recycling rate for the first quarter of the year has increased to 56.6 per cent from 56.4 per cent last year with an additional 2480.87 tonnes recycled.

An annual recycle target of 50 per cent household waste is set for the UK by the EU and the latest data in 2018/19 highlighted England recording rates of 45.1 per cent - thus showing how well the borough fairs comparatively at around 53%.

It has been a particularly challenging times for our waste and recycling staff given the much higher volumes of waste needing removal as the country went into lockdown with many of our residents required to stay at home.

Back in April Wigan Council became the first local authority to reopen recycling centres to assist residents with over 260,000 visitors attending the three sites since they re-opened.

Cllr Paul Prescott, council cabinet member for environment, said: “I would like to thank residents for their ongoing support and continuing to recycle during the recent challenging times.

“I would also like to thank all our bin crews and staff at the recycling centres who have gone above and beyond to support our residents with their waste disposal and recycling.

“While it’s fantastic to see recycling levels rising, it’s vital that we don’t get complacent so please continue to do your bit to recycle whenever possible and help make our borough the most sustainable place it can be.”

First staged in 2004, Recycle Week is now the UK’s largest national annual recycling campaign. As part of the awareness week Wigan Council is asking residents to recycle as much as they can around the home to establish good habits.

There are a range of ways in which residents can do their bit just at home, whether it’s from recycling cardboard toilet roll tubes and toothpaste boxes in the bathroom, empty cans and milk cartons in the kitchen or grass cuttings and weeds from the garden.

It is really important that we all put the right items in the right bins and in particular our blue bins as we are still finding high levels of contamination in the form of food, tissues and nappies.

During Recycle Week the council’s social media channels will be sharing reminder graphics of what goes in each bin which residents can print off and place in their houses or on their bins.

Peter Maddox, director, WRAP UK, said: “It’s fantastic to see that despite everything that has been thrown at them this year, more people than ever in Wigan Borough are taking responsibility for protecting the environment by choosing to recycle. This is something we can all do, wherever we live – an individual action that, when performed by everyone, adds up to a huge change.

Research carried out during lockdown across the country show residents have become even more environmentally aware, with nearly nine in 10 households saying they ‘regularly recycle’.

While more people are prepared to change their lifestyles coming out of lockdown to help the environment; up from 68 per cent in 2019, to 73 per cent this year.

View here for further information on what can and can’t go in each bin or if you want to start more information for recycling.