Throughout National Recycling Week your Worcester News will be following the Clarke-Morris family to take a look in their bins and find out just how much they take recycling to heart, or whether it’s a load of rubbish Day one – Monday The Clarke-Morris family lives in Norton, near Worcester. Jeremy Clarke-Morris is a partner at local accountants Kendall Wadley, his wife Sue works part-time for the Department of Work and Pensions and their daughters Jessica, aged six, and Maisie, five, attend the village primary school.

They, like many around them, recycle on a daily basis. But what goes in their bins? “We have the council green and black bins,” said Mr Clarke-Morris. “Every week one of the bins is collected, green one week, black the next. “Additionally, we have a grey food waste bin. These bins have made it easier to recycle, as previously we had to traipse down to the recycling points in car parks or at the local tip. This has encouraged us to do more.”

But what do we mean by ‘more’? Everyone thinks of paper and glass at the top of the recycling list. Publicity around reducing plastic carrier bags in shops has been enormous. Plastic is famously harder to recycle and one third of the food we buy goes to waste. Over this week, we’ll take a closer look at how and what the Clarke-Morris family recycle and get the experts in to advise on what goes where and how we can all recycle that little bit more.

The experts taking a look at our rubbish are from Lawrence Recycling and Waste Management, based between Stourport and Kidderminster. Not only are they a leading force in all things waste, but their newly opened Forge Recycling plant on the same site is the largest covered recycling site in Europe. These guys know their rubbish. David Lawrence, managing director, will take a look at the family’s recycling and explain where it goes, as well as talking to a few local businesses during the week, all to give us some practical advice and current statistics on recycling.

Lawrence Recycling and Waste Management is driven by its passion to help the environment, and works closely with the Government’s Landfill Directive which states targets for reducing the amount of waste sent to UK landfill sites as follows: l By 2010, the waste sent to landfills should be 75 per cent of that sent in 1995.

l By 2013, the waste sent to landfills should be 50 per cent of that sent in 1995.

l By 2015, the waste sent to landfills should be 35 per cent of that sent in 1995.

Did you know?

• One recycled plastic bottle would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for three hours.

• 70 per cent less energy is required to recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.

• Up to 60 per cent of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could be recycled.

• The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a TV for 5,000 hours.

• The largest lake in the Britain could be filled with rubbish from the UK in eight months.