Recycling
Recycling items that are no longer wanted, or regarded as rubbish, became established as a part of everyday life in 2003, when the Household Waste Recycling Act was passed by the UK Parliament. From that time onwards, local Councils were obliged to provide recycling facilities and kerbside collections.
Since the widespread introduction of plastics in the 1960s, the amount of household waste has increased, putting landfill sites under pressure, hence the rapid realisation that recycling, where possible, has to be encouraged. The current slogan is:
It is up to each Council to decide how to provide recycling arrangements, but they must try and meet a target percentage of recycled materials taken as part of the total waste. Some Councils require householders to separate materials themselves, e.g. into cardboard / paper / plastics / tins / food, etc., while others do most of the separation themselves.
(Image: Bob Harvey at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)