Get ready to go back to basics, understand your waste, and engage in a whole week of waste awareness! Recycling Week 2024 is back from October 21-27, bringing businesses, corporates, schools, universities, retailers, government departments, media, and the general public together across New Zealand for a nationwide effort to make a difference. This year’s theme, “Understand Your Waste,” reminds us how we can all take a step towards a waste-free New Zealand by simply being mindful of what we dispose.

As the country’s largest annual recycling campaign, Recycling Week 2024 aims to shift the focus to the fundamentals: what we throw away and how we can handle waste more responsibly. The first step in the waste minimisation hierarchy is to avoid or refuse, and as we go back to basics and understand our waste, this week is about asking the question, “What is in my waste?”

Why It Matters

New Zealand generates 17.5 million tonnes of waste each year—but not all of it needs to end up in landfills. By understanding our waste better, Kiwis can significantly reduce this number as well as our environmental footprint. Despite its name, Recycling Week is designed to engage people not just on recycling, but to consider the whole waste minimisation hierarchy. Before recycling, the first step and the right thing to do is to see whether the material or product can be avoided, reduced, reused, or repaired with recycling being the LAST option. Recycling Week aims to educate people on how to approach waste and recycling, change behaviours, and develop more positive disposing habits.

Key Highlights of Recycling Week 2024

• Daily Focuses: Each day will feature a particular aspect of the waste minimisation hierarchy with Procurement Monday, Waste-Free Tuesday, Reusable Wednesday, Rinse & Clean Thursday, Reflection Friday, and Spring Clean Weekend.
• Events: Recycling Week provides all participants with resources, tools, assets, and tips to participants on how to get involved, how to activate across different channels and your community, and many other fun and educational activities.
• Support for the Campaign: Supporting businesses include: SkyCity lighting the Sky Tower in the Recycling Week colours, digital billboards by LUMO are helping raise awareness for this campaign. Radio announcements through the support of NZME can also be heard during the week to further spread the message. Social media campaigns are showcasing how businesses are activating and what people are doing.

Notes: 

Recycling Week is for everyone! Whether you’re at home, in your workplace, or part of a local community, there’s something for you to get involved with.

As we “go back to basics” this Recycling Week, let’s work together to create a future where waste is minimised, and resources are maximised.

Recycling Week is made possible by amazing sponsors that contribute to the sharing of our message.

To learn more or get involved in Recycling Week, visit reclaim.co.nz/recycling-week

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