ROB and Sara Sherrey have three daughters – Harriett, aged 10, Eva, four, and Maisie, two. Rob is a family lawyer at Stallard March and Edwards Solicitors in Worcester, while Sara is a stewardess on long-haul flights. Their older daughters are at school locally near the family home.

At home, the Sherrey family work hard to recycle efficiently.

“We recycle as much as we can into the big green bins, but this doesn’t include bottles,” said Sara.

“We take those to the bottle bank with our four-year-old daughter Eva, who has learnt about this through children’s book Peppa Pig, so she is keen to get involved.”

While plastics, cardboard and packaging can go in the council bin, the Sherrey family’s newspapers go to another environmentally friendly end.

Sara said: “We have a log burner and save our papers to use instead of firelighters. The log burner is carbon neutral and gets rid of the papers too.”

David Lawrence often hears confusion over plastics.

He said: “It’s good to hear the Sherreys are recycling their plastics – which can often be a minefield with over 200 types, so it’s a complex process to recycle when they are collected together.

“Separating plastics into separate types enables recyclers to produce quality products down the line.”

Food waste is a huge issue in the UK, with one third of food bought going to waste. The Sherreys have a compost heap and shop carefully to minimise food waste.

“Some 6.7 million tonnes of food are thrown away by UK households every year,” said Mr Lawrence.

“Wasting food costs the average family £420 a year and has serious environmental implications too.

“If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking one in five cars off the road.”

Rob Sherrey is encouraged to recycle by his employers.

He said: “All the paper at work is shredded for recycling as well as for confidentiality reasons. Our firm’s policy is to scan and e-mail and to print double-sided where possible, all to avoid paper waste. Every member of staff is very aware of recycling wherever possible.

“We also encourage going green in other ways – I’m among a growing number of staff who cycle into work every day.”

Business waste is a massive issue across the entire country. Mr Lawrence said: “Increased taxes to landfill and other business costs now make recycling the only sensible (as well as ethical) business decision as far as waste management is concerned. In the workplace, recycling correctly saves on business overheads, protects the environment and reduces the burden on landfill.

“By separating mixed recyclates from general waste into bins, we can meet the pre-treatment legislation which came into force in October 2007.

“With a separate collection for all recyclables, businesses can easily lower their collection costs as well as complying with this legislation and, most importantly, reducing the burden on landfill.”

Across all aspects of their lives – from the children learning about recycling at school to understanding the need to recycle where possible in the home and at work – the Sherrey family is working hard to recycle throughout the year and not just during Recycle Week. Lawrence Recycling and Waste Management’s 16-acre site near Stourport-on-Severn includes the largest covered recycling site in Europe, with the capacity to process more than 250,000 tonnes of waste per year from construction, demolition, commercial and industrial streams.

Materials such as cardboard, plastics, paper, concrete, soils, glass, plasterboard and metals are recycled on site through a series of automated processes, without the need to be separated before it is collected.

A WORLD OF WASTE

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

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

If separated, 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 television for 5,000 hours.

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