Local school girl fronts new West Sussex recycling campaign

A school girl from Bognor Regis is the face of a new campaign designed to help cut the confusion around recycling.

Ten-year-old Mia was picked by the West Sussex Waste Partnership to star in a series of videos which give advice on what can and can’t be recycled in the home.

The campaign called ‘Mia recycles’ focuses on items in the bathroom, the kitchen, and the living room on a takeaway night. Mia also visits the Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) in Ford to show what happens to recycling once it’s been collected from each district and borough in the county.

West Sussex County Council Cabinet Member for the Environment, Deborah Urquhart, said: “Some residents are still confused as to what can and can’t be recycled in West Sussex and we see evidence of this every week when bin collections arrive to be processed.

“22,000 tonnes of materials which could have been recycled are thrown away every year in West Sussex. Not only is this a huge waste, it also costs the taxpayer £2.5million to dispose of.

“We’re fortunate in West Sussex to be able to recycle a wide range of materials and we’re grateful at the amount of recycling our residents do already.

“But there is always more we can do and we hope our entertaining videos will help people to do just that.”

Some items that commonly get missed from recycling around the home include:

• Plastic pots, tubs and trays (any colour, including black plastic)
• Card (corrugated and non-corrugated)
• Newspapers, magazines and other recyclable paper
• Shampoo and shower gel bottles
• Glass bottles and jars
• Cans and aerosols

Residents are also reminded that their recycling should be:

• CLEAN – free from food and drink leftovers – a quick rinse will do.
• DRY – keep your recycling bin lid shut – soggy paper and cardboard can’t be recycled and can clog up machinery when sorted.
• LOOSE – not tied up in plastic bags.

Deborah added: “The videos are a fun way of getting some important messages across. Recycling doesn’t have to be confusing and we hope that Mia will inspire residents young and old to think before they throw.”

Starting from Sunday 1 September the videos can be watched from the @WSRecycles Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts with a new video added every Sunday until 6 October.

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