Fenland residents are being encouraged to make a difference this week as a national campaign lifts the lid on blue bin recycling.

Fenland District Council is joining other authorities in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership in supporting recycle week from today (Monday 25) to Sunday (October 1) to encourage people to recycle more.

It comes as Fenland District Council carries out work in Chatteris as part of an ongoing recycling project this Thursday.

Waste and recycling staff will be delivering information to 350 homes as part of recycling improvement work which will see 28,000 visits made across the district by the end of the year.

It aims to make residents more aware of what can and can’t go in blue bins and reduce the amount of recyclables which goes into green, general waste bins.

This year’s theme, ‘recycling – it’s worth it’, is hoping to encourage people to recycle more items from all around the home.

Research by Recycle Now, the national recycling campaign for England, found almost 90 per cent of people in the UK regularly recycle from the kitchen, but only 52 per cent regularly recycle items from the bathroom such as deodorant cans and shampoo bottles.

Peter Maddox, director of WRAP, which organises Recycle Week as part of the Recycle Now campaign, said: “Recycling just three empty deodorant cans can save enough energy to power a shower for eight minutes.”

Councillor Peter Murphy, Fenland District Council’s portfolio holder for the environment, said: “We have a great track record for recycling in Fenland, but there’s always room for us all to do even more. We really want to encourage everyone to think about those empty deodorant cans, shampoo and perfume bottles when recycling.”

The council’s ongoing door-to-door recycling project launched in May 2016. Each week advisors visit targeted areas to deliver recycling information;

The work is carried out before bin collections.

Where a recycling bin is used well and contains a range of recyclable materials, a thank you hanger is put on the bin.

Advisors then revisit the same area on the next recycling collection and check the bins to see if any improvements have been made.