Welsh Scouts set to be expert recyclers

Recycle for Wales can announce that the 3rd Aberystwyth Scouts troop in Ceredigion have been crowned best recyclers in Wales and third in the UK in this year’s popular ‘Ready Set Recycle’ challenge. The 17 members diligently recycled a staggering 5,241 items over the course of the 12 weeks the challenge was taking place. That works out as over 300 items per troop member!

Run in partnership between The Scout Association and Recycle for Wales, the ‘Ready, Set, Recycle’ challenge saw young people in scouting across the UK compete to recycle the most plastic, paper, card, metal and glass packaging items in their homes. Troops eagerly submitted their recycling achievements on a specially designed challenge website each week. Other troops who achieved top recycling scores included 3rd Aberystwyth Cubs also in Ceredigion, 1st Wenvoe Beavers in Vale of Glamorgan and 7th Caerphilly Scouts.

As winners, Aberystwyth 3rd Scouts got to go behind the scenes at The Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Powys earlier this week, gaining a fascinating insight into the journey their recycling goes on once it’s collected. The winners also each received an exclusive Recycle for Wales goodie bag equipped with items to help them with their upcoming Scouting adventures.

This popular challenge was launched to show Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorer Scouts in Wales how simple recycling is, and the positive benefits all their hard work has. From flattening cardboard and rinsing out plastic, glass, and metal packaging, those involved made it their mission to recycle as much as they could from around their homes. 

The ‘Ready, Set, Recycle’ challenge was launched jointly between The Scout Association and Recycle for Wales with strong support from the Welsh Government. The Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths had this to say about news of the winners in Aberystwyth: “Congratulations to Aberystwyth Scouts on their inspiring achievement. Wales leads the rest of the UK with a 58% recycling rate and it’s encouraging to see our future generations embrace the challenge of recycling more.”

Anna Weston from The Scout Association had this to say about the challenge: “Scouting is about teaching young people life skills, and one of the most essential skills we can learn is how to look after our planet and have fun doing so. The Ready Set Recycle competition made understanding recycling easy and fun for our groups, abolishing common misconceptions about what we can and can’t recycle. We have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from the groups that took part, and we hope Recycle Now can continue to help us teach our young people to help look after the world!”

Angela Spiteri from Recycle for Wales said: “We want to say a big thank you to all the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorer Scouts who took part in this challenge and really hope that you all continue to do a stand-up job with your recycling 

both at home and at school and to apply the excellent knowledge you have gained with the help of your troop leaders.”  

Angela continued by saying: “Of course this announcement follows the recent news from The Welsh Government that the country has hit its national recycling target of 60%.  This is fantastic news and we are preparing the young adventurers of today with the skills and know-how to recycle more and more effectively is a great place to start!”

Take a look at our tips to get everyone in your family recycling:

1. Make it easy peasy

Make recycling as easy as possible by giving it a designated home in each room. You’ll remember to recycle more if you have the option to do it right in front of you.

2. Get your sorting hat on

Use bags, boxes or bins to separate your plastic, paper, card, metal and glass items. Make it your weekly goal to try and fill these as full as possible.

3. More than milk bottles

Remember that you can recycle items from all over your home, not just your kitchen. Lots of bathroom and bedroom items can be recycled too. A few examples are shampoo bottles, cleaning bottles, toilet roll tubes and toothpaste boxes.

4.Teach yourself something new

If you’re unsure which items you can recycle, simply follow this link and pop your postcode into the Recycling Locator to find out what to do with your items.

Recycle for Wales offers advice and tips to help people across the country get recycling. 

For more information about The Scout Association visit: www.scouts.org.uk