A giant bin, 3 metres high entertained shoppers with the message "Reth!nk Rubbish". The bin drove slowly through the car park outside Sainsbury’s at Hedge End, amusing shoppers and spreading the word that recycling is easier than ever before in Hampshire!

The event was to support the launch of a campaign, by Project Integra, Hampshire’s waste management partnership, to encourage residents to use their special kerbside recycling collections.

Over 90% of Hampshire households are offered a recycling collection scheme by their local council, separate from the ordinary rubbish collection. Residents are urged to find out about their local scheme and leave recyclables ready for collection on the designated day.

They will be taken to a Materials Recovery Facility where they will be sorted by a series of hand and mechanical processes, and eventually sent to manufacturers to be made into new products.

Using recycled material

• saves the rubbish being buried at a landfill site
• saves the raw materials that would have been needed to make the new products
• saves energy – for example, it’s much more energy efficient to make new newspapers by pulping, de-inking and reprocessing old newspapers and magazines, than it is to cut down, transport and process trees to be made into newsprint.
• Reduces the impact on climate change by using less energy to process.

Chairman of the Project Integra Management Board, Councillor Richard Williams commented, "With the Johannesburg Environmental Summit still fresh in our minds, recycling is a very positive way in which we can all make a contribution, especially as it’s so easy to recycle in Hampshire. Then, if you want to go one step further, buy goods made from recycled material and help create the demand for them!"