In 2021, 63.2% of UK packaging waste was recycled. Sounds good right? What about the other 37% which wasn’t or couldn’t be recycled?

In West Sussex, we recycle 53% kerbside recycling, above the national average of 44%. When you recycle, you stop manufacturers using new raw materials and which also uses less energy too.  However, many products can only be recycled a few times before they aren’t fit-for-purpose.

Find out where and how to recycle at home, and at local council centres. You’ll also find out what to do with hard-to-recycle items and alternatives to recycling.

recyling drop off

Parishes and Schools Keep Joining in on Our Single-Use Recycling Scheme

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In partnership with TerraCycle, a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials, Sussex Green Living is now working with over twelve parishes and schools to divert billions of waste resources from landfills.

Why is Recycling Single-Use Plastic Important?

Plastics are extremely durable and cheap to manufacture, making them almost impossible to overlook for manufacturers when it comes to product design and packaging. But their durability comes at the cost of slow degradation rates in the wild; upwards of 300 to 1000 years.

With about 380 tonnes of it being produced every year, by the time the plastic we have disposed of today begins to degrade the quantity in landfills, oceans and everywhere else will have become totally unmanageable. That is, unless, we can turn the tides.

Bisphenol A has been observed to disrupt physiological levels of sex hormones, negatively affect thyroid hormone gene expression in humans, and cause other detrimental effects. In marine life, issues with plastic entanglement and ingestion have been observed at a broad scale.

The Differences in Plastic Recycling Types

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Fundraising to expand our single use plastic recycling operation

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Some ‘Wednesday Wombles’ sorting crisp packets pre covid

Bigger and better: Appeal for help to expand our single use plastic recycling operation and deliver a greener Horsham!

After a quiet start to the lockdown on the single use plastic recycling front, we are delighted to say that things are starting to pick up again and we are receiving increasing donations of single use plastics waste resources at the Quaker Meeting House drop off point. This is brilliant news as we want to make sure we’re diverting as much single use plastic household waste away from landfill and incineration, and finding new purposes for these materials through our TerraCycle recycling scheme.

We are extremely lucky to have our small but dedicated team of volunteers (affectionately known as the Wombles!) who throughout the lockdown have continued to sort through the donations on a weekly basis in a socially distanced manner. However as waste resource donations return to pre lockdown levels, SGL is in desperate need of support to expand its recycling capability. To give some indication of the quantities the team are working through, a staggering 120,000 crisp packets have been recycled by our team over the course of the last two years! Once single plastic donations are dropped off at the Quaker Meeting House, these are sorted through by hand by our volunteers, boxed up and sent to a company called TerraCycle who manage the recycling of these hard to recycle materials. Without these volunteers, crisp packets along with lots of other household single use plastic resources such as biscuit and snack wrappers would be discarded in waste bins, which currently are transported to Germany and Holland to be incinerated at significant financial and environmental cost. Read more

Help us in global recycling contest

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Press release – Help Sussex Green Living win prize through ‘liking’ recycling video

Sussex Green Living (SGL) volunteer Joy Carter has won Terracycle’s global #keepOnRecycling contest for her “how-to” film that inspires householders to recycle specific single-use plastics during the lockdown.

The film promotes the free recycling schemes run by SGL and Terracycle to avoid items ending up in landfill or being sent overseas by the Council to be incinerated.

Joy said: “Now that most of us are staying home we are generating a lot more waste than normal and it is an ideal time to learn what to do with items that can’t be put in our recycle bins”.

Help Sussex Green Living Go Global! 

Joy is donating the £80 prize money to the Horsham Community Fridge but has set her sights on the global prize and needs your support. The funds would enable SGL to set up a storage facility for all the recycling they sort through ordinarily on a weekly basis at the Quaker Meeting House.  To help SGL win, please watch, like and share Joy’s film on social media. https://www.facebook.com/SussexGreenLiving/

Carrie Cort, SGL founder, said: “We are delighted that the volume of recycling from the local community has increased so significantly – it shows how many people care about being zero-waste. However, we now need to expand our operation to avoid volunteers taking a bag loads of recycling home to sort through. Please support our film and help us win the Terracycle award”. Read more

Recycle bin

More single-use plastic recycling

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Other ways to recycle more single-use plastic:

In addition to the single use plastics we recycle mainly through TerraCycle, the following plastics can be dropped off for recycling at the major supermarkets: 

– All plastic carrier bags, except biodegradable or compostable bags

– Breakfast cereal liners

– Shrink wrap & ring joiners from multipacks of water, cans etc

– Frozen food bags, e.g. bags for frozen vegetable, chips, etc

– Dry cleaning bags/bags covering new clothing

– Magazine and newspaper wrappers

– Bags for fruit and vegetables

– Bubble wrap

For online shopping deliveries, many supermarkets also allow you to hand your unwanted bags back to the driver for recycling. Read more

Stunning single use plastic stats!

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We are really excited to share our latest stats and facts showing the impacts of our single-use plastic recycling scheme, which was launched in 2012 in partnership with TerraCycle. In the early days Carrie the founder of Sussex Green Living and her young son Adam sorted and dispatched the recycling, now we have about 20 volunteers aged 8 – 90. Our main public drop off locations are at the William Penn School in Coolham and the Horsham Quaker Meeting House. We also have community micro-drop off locations in: Leechpool School in Horsham, Rudgwick Youth Club, Thakham Village Hall, Storrington Community Market (once a week), Slinfold and Henfield. There are thousands of people collecting for us from all over the county. Over the eight years we have run this special recycling scheme we have diverted millions of pieces of single-use plastic from landfill and incinerator. Most of our single use plastic recycling raises money for the William Penn School.

Prior to the stats shown below we collected TerraCycle waste resources for the benefit of WAKOOS a nursery for children in Billingshurst and Horsham Matters, these statistic are not shown below. Read more

Are your clothes really causing climate change?

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Now how is it that clothes are causing climate change? …..Where in the world are your clothes made?  Take a look through your drawers and cupboard to find out! In the 1980s lots of clothes manufacturers decided they wanted to copy some of the big expensive brands, however to ensure they sold more and more cheaply and faster they moved their manufacturing bases to Asia. Most of the world’s clothes now are made in China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and Sri Lanka where the price of labour is much cheaper.

Container ships produce more greenhouse gas emissions than some small countries. According to The Essential Daily Briefing: “It has been estimated that just one of these container ships, the length of around six football pitches, can produce the same amount of pollution as 50 million cars (22/04/2018)

Like many commodities, clothes are transported by cargo ships which equals a rather serious carbon footprint and directly contributes to climate change.  Read more

Pre-loved clothes sale in Horsham

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Did you know the second most polluting industry is the fast fashion industry? Learn more about the problems in this blog ‘Are your clothes really causing climate change? We are delighted to announce a local solution….in partnership with our friends at One World Living and our great volunteers, we are running a pre-loved clothes sale otherwise known as a kilo sale! It is on Saturday 9th November 12-4pm at Greenway Academy, Greenway, Horsham, RH12 2JS, at the end of Green GB Week. We will be selling quality pre-loved clothes for a bargin £10 per kilo (normally kilo sales charge £15 a kilo).

To give you an idea of what you will get for one kilo….. a pair of man’s denim jeans will be about 1.5 and 2 kg and woman’s clothing 1 kg will be about 1 pair of denim jeans or about 6 T-shirts. Thanks to the PTA at Greenway Academy there will be drinks and homemade cakes for sale, so come for the afternoon. There will be a separate areas for children, ladies and men’s clothes.

Proceeds from this sale will help us deliver FREE climate education in local schools, learn more here,  also deprived children and families Romania and Uganda. Plus helping the planet and your pocket! Read more

Learn how to divert landfill waste into a recycling scheme and raise money for a good cause

Plastic food packaging. We need your help!!!

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South American Tree FrogDo you know which items are recycled with our “TerraCycle” schemes ?

We wish we could recycle all the plastic food packaging you have kindly donated however there are clear guidelines on which items will be accepted under the free TerraCyle recycling schemes that we are registered to.  Our small team of volunteers are working hard to sort through donations to remove all items which cannot be recycled under the TerraCycle schemes.

To help streamline the work of our volunteers here is a reminder of which plastic food packaging we can accept for recycling. Plastic food packaging from other sources will be discarded…..even if made of same or similar material.  Read more

Single-use plastic recycling stats

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Wow since December the general public have collected 25,136 crisp packets, thanks to our green team of volunteers who sort and dispatch this recycling! Our volunteers include the A Team from Leachpool School in Horsham, who collect from their school, K2 leisure centre in Crawley and The Pavillions leisure centre in Horsham.

We work with a number of charities and companies who recycle these single-use plastics one such company being TerraCycle, they are an innovative recycling company that has become a global leader in recycling hard-to-recycle materials. This scheme helps diverts billions of waste resouces from our landfills and incinerators, recycling them to make new products. Read more

Climate Emergency – please can you help us?

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Dear Horsham and West Sussex residents,

Climate change news is everywhere. It seems too bigger problem for many people and is the greatest environmental threat humanity has ever faced, but you can do something. Here are some ways in West Sussex and Horsham you can help….. Read more

Caring for clothes & planet events

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During the first half of 2019 Sussex Green Living and the Horsham Repair Cafe are out and about, inpiring people to ‘make do and mend’, remake, repair, repatch and basically love the clothes and materials around them. Come and learn long lost skills of sewing, patches, repairing buttons, clothes etc. Learn about fast fashion and the damage it is causing our planet, solutions, ways of saving money and the planet……

2nd (10-4pm) and 3rd March (10-3pm) Horsham Repair Cafe and Sussex Green Living are at the Kinder Living Home Show, County Hall, North Horsham, Park Street, Horsham, RH12 1XH. The event aims to encourage more sustainable choices in our homes, gardens and daily lives. We will be offering repairs to electrical household items and clothes and clothes swapping. Read more

No do NOT make eco bricks!

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Here at SGL headquarters we are contacted time and time again about whether we could be a drop off location for eco bricks, our response is always NO NO NO.

Eco bricks have been around for years, they were first developed to deal with flexible single use plastics and plastic bottles in countries which did not have a council offering waste collection and recycling. The idea being it was better to collect the materials, preventing them from going in the rivers and sea and making something useful with them. Now Eco bricks have taken off in the UK after a post was seen a lot of times, and people have begun to ‘make’ them. Read more

Whose waste is it anyway? Event in Brighton

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Whose waste is it anyway? Is a new event taking place at the Brighthelm Centre, Brighton on Thursday 1 November 2018 between 10:00 – 3pm. Carrie Cort, founder of Sussex Green Living is giving a talk on the shocking journey of a cotton T shirt and the environmental effects for the fast fashion industry.

Waste is a hot topic right now.  Read more

Wildlife Eco Warrior assembly & workshops

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This workshop is a fun, informative and practical session, showing the synergy between biodiversity, environmental protection and upcycling. Led by Carrie Cort the founder of Sussex Green Living, this is one in a series of workshops Carrie offers.

In this workshop we generate ideas which  inspire our children to become the next generation of green champions. In turn these ideas can help them make decisions about the way we do things individually and collectively, both locally and globally. This will improve the quality of life now, reducing damage to the planet in the future. The workshop includes some hands on creative upcycling for the garden, e.g. butterfly hibernation boxes from TetraPaks, owl boxes out of old wellington boots, bird feeders out of plastic milk bottles.  Subjects: Science, PSHE, Art & Design and Citizenship.

Learn more about the Wildlife Eco Warrior session we ran for Annington Homes at Gamlingay Primary School in Bedfordshire…..

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Eco Beasts take over West Sussex!

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Eco Beast Competition

Eco Beast Sculptures migrated from across West Sussex and took over a marquee in Horsham Park at ‘Funday Sunday’ on Sunday 9th July.  Children from all over the county had wonderful fun making Eco Beast Sculptures out of waste resources. The best sculptures from schools and children’s uniformed groups formed a stunning public exhibition at this family event. Read more

26 eco-friendly Christmas tips

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Pedro ChristmasWe’ve got some great tips to help you enjoy Christmas, so you can spoil yourself and your loved ones without spoiling the planet.

Here’s a uniquely seasonal paradox. Is it possible to buy a truly green Christmas tree? Artificial trees aren’t biodegradable and need enormous amounts of energy to manufacture. So it may come as a surprise that buying a real tree is not necessarily a greener option. Read more

Top tie upcycling ideas

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Neckties are a bit of an environmental nightmare, novelty ties get bought for people who might use them once or twice, charity shops don’t want them as they don’t sell well and if sent for recycling they often get caught up in the recycling machinery and cause expensive damage.  Upcycling, remaking and reuse is best!

A creative community group bought together by Sussex Green Living have been busy demonstrating Read more

Guinness World Record helps William Penn School

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William Penn primary school children counting neckties for the Guinness World Record attempt to wear the most neckties.

Horsham families are in for a summer half term treat, a free family tietastic Guinness World Record event in the Human Nature Garden in Horsham Park!  Carrie Cort founder of Sussex Green Living has got together with the organisers of the Horsham Circle of Life Festival to lay on a fun action packed free green event. Read more

True cost of Christmas

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Beautiful second hand paper.

All our presents are wrapped with last years wrapping paper, stunning.

Christmas is a really exciting and fun time of year, however it is a horrendously wasteful time. We eat far too much food and spend vast sums of money, but we don’t have to indulge in such a wasteful celebration. This blog explains ways of reducing the amount of waste you create, ways to save money and shows some shocking statistics about the toll Christmas has on the environment.  Read more

Recycling games for kids

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Recycling is one of the most important actions you can take to help the environment and to preserve it, so that we can continue to live on a green and healthy planet instead of breathing in pollution and damaging the nature. And because of that, we should teach our children to recycle from a very young age, so when they grow up, they continue to recycle and continue to treat our environment better. Read more

Rubbish or a craft resource?

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After the festive season many people throw away their Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas cards and cracker content, not here!  These waste resources make stunning art materials for our Green Club.  Last week saw the start of our Pedro’s After School Green Club at the William Penn Primary School in Coolham, West Sussex. 15 children ranging from 6 to 11 came together to learn ways they can “upcycle” these materials into new Christmas resources. We made new crackers out of cardboard tubes, Christmas wrapping paper and unwanted cracker jokes and gifts.  Out of the Christmas cards we made present tags and Christmas cards for next year and thank you cards for this year.

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Fake v real Christmas Trees. Which is greener?

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Christmas trees

Our trees, our planet, our future.

In recent years the overall sale of real trees has declined in both the UK and US suggesting that perhaps, as environmental awareness increases, people are opting for the more eco-friendly tree. The producers of both will argue a strong case for their businesses but there are a lot of factors to take in to account when comparing them.  Which one is greener …..

 

 

 

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Sussex getting greener!

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Horsham Quaker launchHorsham Quakers and the William Penn Primary School unite

Sussex Green Living with the help of Horsham Quakers and local residents launched a third recycling collection point in Horsham, last Saturday (7th Dec) at their monthly Green Coffee Morning and Mini Market.  This scheme will enable the people of Horsham to divert specific landfill waste resources into a recycling scheme financially benefiting the William Penn Primary School in Coolham. This is fantastic green community collaboration between the Horsham Quakers and the William Penn School which is a unique primary school with a Quaker foundation.  Read more

Biscuit wrapper recyclers

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Biscuit wrapper recyclingCongratulations!

Together with the top 20 collectors on the McVitie’s Biscuit Wrapper Roundup, the William Penn Primary School with the help of Sussex Green Living and other competitors have saved over 47,000 Biscuit Wrappers from landfill!  Read more

Gardeners: Leave Your Leaves

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leaf recyclingDo not rake up the leaves in your garden, let the best recyclers do their job!  This is a busy time of year for earthworms. And resisting the temptation to tidy away Autumn leaves not only feeds these subterranean creatures but fertilizes the soil, making them one of the gardener’s best friends. Read more