The UK is constantly becoming more active in its efforts to recycle as much waste as possible, but when it comes to recycling our rubbish it’s Wales that really shows the rest of Britain who takes out the trash.
Recent information from the Viridor UK Recycling Index shows that the Welsh capital of Cardiff is the most active city for recycling, with 73% of consumers saying that they recycle everything that can be recycled.
Viridor’s study looks at five major areas of the UK (London, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and the Southwest) to help give an accurate overall sample of British recycling habits, but whereas it looks positive in Wales, some parts of England and Scotland are falling behind.
Despite the excellent stance on recycling taken by the residents of Cardiff, only them and Manchester recycle above the national average, with London, Glasgow and the Southwest falling below the rest of the UK.
The national average of consumers who recycle everything possible currently stands at 60%, according to Viridor. But major cities like London fall fractionally below this, with only 58% of consumers in England’s capital saying they recycle everything that can be.
The Southwest ties with London on 58%, although it must be mentioned that Bristol was voted as the green capital of Europe as recently as 2015 by the Siemens Green City Index.
Way out in last place is Glasgow, who fall well below the UK average with just 51% of residents recycling as much as they can.
There’s a lot of positives to take from this survey, not least that fact that there are major cites, like Cardiff, who are setting a high benchmark for the rest of the UK by making real efforts to ethically dispose of as much waste as possible.
However, three out of the five areas used in the sample falling below the average is a worrying statistic. It is the major cities and areas in our country that we should be looking to as excellent standard bearers in our battle to become a greener and environmentally friendly country.
Recycling is one of our primary concerns at Junk Hunters, and we regularly recycle as much as 70% of the waste that we collect, whilst making sure that what we can’t recycle is disposed of without affecting the environment.