According to the latest statistics the number of carrier bags handed out in UK supermarkets has fallen for the 4th year in a row.

Since plastic bag monitoring began in 2006, 4.6 billion plastic bags have been cut according to the British Retail Consortium. (BRC) 43% fewer carrier bags were used in 2009-10 compared to in 2006, that’s a total of 6.1 billion against 10.7 billion 4 years ago.

BRC Director General, Stephen Robertson said “This is a great achievement by UK supermarkets, customers and staff especially as the amount of goods sold between 2006 to 2009 has risen by 6%.”

The figures have been achieved by supermarkets encouraging customers to re-use carrier bags, use bags for life or charging for each one.

The 7 supermarkets included in the statistics are Asda, M&S, Co-op group, Somerfield, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco.

This week the 21st June – 27th June is Recycle Week in the UK. This years Recycle Week is focusing on one material stream in particular which is small waste electrical and electronic equipment. (WEEE)

The aim of Recycle Week is too make people think about the many easy ways that we all can recycle less waste and make more of the current resources we all have.

Many people in the UK admit to hanging onto old electronic devices even if they no longer have a use for them. A recent survey found that 40% of respondents hang onto old electronic devices as they feel too sad to part with them, 41% hope that the old item might come in handy one day, 23% said that electrical items are too valuable to thrown away and 29% keep them because they don’t know how to dispose of them correctly.

In schools across the whole of England, Recycle Now is working with the British Heart Foundation to make it easy for pupils to dig out unused electronic devices and donate them to a good cause.

If you have any small electrical items such as kettles, electric toothbrushes, hair-dryers, toasters or even unused power tools then dig them out and support Recycle Week 2010 by taking them too your local British Heart Foundation Store, where you can donate them and help raise money for charity. Other small and more valuable electrical devices such as laptops, mobile phones, MP3 players and SAT NAVS can be recycled for cash payments at popular recycling sites including Mirror Go Green or Mopay.

10:10 is a new website which launched on the 1st September 2009, they have one simple idea and that is to reduce all our carbon emissions by 10% in 2010.

Whether you are an individual, school or university, shop, global brand or politician everyone can sign up to 10:10 and work together to reduce carbon emissions by 10% this year.

Carbon emissions or greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause of global warming, they are released when fuels are burnt in the home, from vehicles, power stations and factories.

To date almost 60,000 people, businesses and organizations have signed up to the new campaign and are already working in a number of ways to cut their carbon emissions. For individuals 10% should be fairly easy and could include things like flying or driving less, insulating your loft or changing your light bulbs to energy saving ones. For businesses, schools and other organizations 10% may be a little more difficult to achieve but its best to aim high, the main areas that will be concentrated on will be grid electricity, fossil fuels, air travel and vehicle fuels.

Sign up with 10:10 here today

Mobile Phones are very useful for human beings but very harmful to Gorillas. The majority of mobile phones contain a black mineral called coltan which is mined in the Congo, the homeland of endangered lowland gorillas.

Coltan is used in the electrical capacitors in mobile phones and the majority is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo where many Gorillas live.

The people that mine the coltan are a long way from shops and other places where food can be bought so have no option but too illegally poach mountain Gorillas for what they call ‘bush meat.’ Up to 1 million tonnes of bush meat is eaten in the Congo every year and is causing major problems to the Gorilla population.

In the past 5 years Gorilla numbers in this area have dropped drastically by as much as 70%.

In order to help save Gorillas more people should recycle their old mobile phones which will help to reduce the amount of mining that is done in the Congo. There are many mobile recycling sites available where people can earn up to £300 in cash for their old and unwanted handsets.

Recycle your old mobile phone today

Thanks to a new recycling scheme, RecycleBank which rewards householders with gift vouchers for recycling their waste, residents in one of the trial areas, Halton have already significantly increased their recycling efforts.

The new scheme which started in October 2009 has shown an increase of 20% more people recycling household rubbish after 10,000 people were invited to take part in the trial. Phase 1 will end in April 2010 when Halton borough councillors will meet to discuss extending the scheme to the whole borough.

RecycleBank rewards households with shopping vouchers for Leisure centres, local; retailers, M&S, MacDonald’s, Subway and lots more for the amount of materials that are put in their blue recycling bins. Households have the opportunity of earning on average around £135 in rewards every year.

RecycleBank is a great recycling program that will benefit national and local retailers, customers and the environment. The scheme is expected to roll out across the whole of the UK in the near future.

Batteries that are thrown in the bin amount to a large amount of the waste that ends up at Britain’s landfills. Once at landfill batteries leak dangerous chemicals into the soil which will cause damage to the environment. To try and avoid these problems strict guidelines and regulations have been set for companies that produce and manufacture batteries in the UK.

The new Waste Batteries and Accumulators regulations state that any company that either imports or manufacturers at least 1 tonne of batteries in the UK will be responsible for sorting out the waste and recycling and cleaning up the mess. The amount they will have to recycle will depend on how much of the market they share. Each company that produces over a tonne of batteries will have to register with Environmental Agencies in the UK.

Companies that manufacture less than 1 tonne of batteries will not be held accountable by the new regulations although they must still register with the National Producer Responsibility Database.

The Co-operative has teamed up with Oxfam and the Stop Climate Chaos
Coalition, to get as many people as possible to march through the
streets of London on Saturday 5th December to keep the heat on the
government for definite action on climate change.

The peaceful march called ‘The Wave’ will take place just before the
UN climate change talks in Copenhagen, where world governments will
sort out a new deal on how to tackle climate change in the future.

‘The Wave’ will call on world leaders to secure a fair and safe deal
to stop global warming exceeding the danger threshold of 2 degrees C
and for a low carbon future for both the UK and the World.

It’s hoped that around 50,000 to 100,000 people will turn up for the
march, making this the biggest climate change march in history. Anyone
taking part in the ‘The Wave’ is asked to wear blue clothing and bring
blue banners in order to create a human wave.

For more information and to book your place visit The Wave.