Mural painted on a wall showing a fisherman in a plastic bottle to raise awareness of Recycle Week

Recycle Week

The nation’s annual celebration of recycling

Recycle Week is Recycle Now's flagship annual event which is a celebration of recycling across the nation.

It’s the one week of the year where retailers, brands, waste management companies, trade associations, governments and the media come together to achieve one goal: to galvanise the public into recycling more of the right things, more often.

Recycle Week 2024 - 16-22 September 2024

Recycle Week 2024

We are really excited to announce that Recycle Week 2024 will take place from 16-22 September, so save the date in your diary!

Recycle Week has been running for 21 years, and as always, we will be working with businesses, sponsors, schools, local authorities and community groups to encourage citizens to recycle. Watch this space for more details coming soon.

We'd love to talk to organisations about the opportunities to get involved with Recycle Week 2024

Recognition of our Recycle Now ‘swoosh logo’ is at an all-time high, with 80% of citizens recalling the logo. Joining Recycle Week celebrations will align your brand with this national high-profile event and demonstrate that it takes sustainability seriously.

If you are interested in supporting the campaign, please contact us: [email protected]

Recycle Week through the years

Since 2004 Recycle Week has delivered the nation's largest recycling behaviour change campaign. Through an ambitious mix of film, social media, on street initiatives, influencers, radio and PR, Recycle Week has encouraged citizens to recycle, using the power of its one voice.

Our research

Through WRAP’s Recycling Tracker, we know that 88% of UK households regularly recycle. This is a testament to the focus and investment from WRAP’s citizen-facing brand Recycle Now and its partners over the years.

However, the data in the Recycling Tracker highlights that 87% of UK households recycle 1 or more items which are not accepted in the kerbside recycling and 57% miss one or more items which could be recycled at the kerbside.

We have made great strides, but more is needed. In a world where resources are limited, Recycle Now’s vision is to get people recycling the right things more often.

Recycle Week 2023 – The Big Recycling Hunt

The Big Recycling Hunt logo in green and blue text on a white background

Recycle Week 2023 took place between 16-22 October 2023. The theme - The Big Recycling Hunt - focused on “missed capture”: the items that can be recycled but are commonly missed in the home.  

In 2023, Recycle Week celebrated its 20th anniversary and inspired children, families and whole communities to get involved. The campaign had two distinct elements: firstly for schools – encouraging the country’s children to partake in fun activities throughout Recycle Week, plus a focus on local authorities, partners and brands to share the central the message.

Primary schools in England and Northern Ireland were asked to sign up to The Action Pack to receive all the latest information and details of how to take part. Local authorities, brands and retailers got behind the Big Recycling Hunt by signing up to receive all the latest campaign information.

WRAP Recycling Summit 17-19 October 2023

First ever Recycling Summit, as part of Recycle Week 2023

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Recycle Week, we were proud to present WRAP’s very first Recycling Summit from 17 to 19 October 2023.

This must-attend online event was a great opportunity to learn about our cutting-edge insights and work in circular economy.

Recycle Week 2022

In 2022, Recycle Week went bolder and bigger than ever. The theme was ‘Let’s Get Real’ and it boldly challenged perceptions and myths around recycling as well as targeting contamination to improve recycling behaviours. 

The theme in Wales was slightly adapted to reflect the subtle differences around recycling behaviours, government priorities and infrastructure in the rest of the UK and Northern Ireland. 

An integrated marketing campaign was developed with all campaign elements working to drive behaviour change. This included a giant QR code made from recyclable materials, digital advertising and a celebrity ambassador to front the campaign. 

In order to deliver behaviour change, Recycle Now’s Recycling Locator formed the key call to action for the campaign. The Recycling Locator is the UK’s best and most universal tool for checking nationally what can be recycled at home and in our local area. 

Recycle Week results

All of the activity across the country resulted in 14% of UK adults recall seeing or hearing about Recycle Week, this equates to 7.1 million citizens. 47% of those 7.1 million citizens said they did something differently as a result of seeing or hearing about Recycle Week. This equates to an impressive 3.7 million citizens.* 

*These results come from a robust tracker survey that ran after Recycle Week. The survey is a UK representative sample. 

The Recycle Week team recently won three awards for 2022 campaign film Let's Get Real about Recycling.

In 2022, Recycle Now was able to go bigger with its marketing strategy given the incredible support from corporate sponsorship. 2022 was the first year Recycle Now adopted a sponsorship strategy and was successful in securing 11 sponsors.