News and Events

Norwich's Recycled Castle

A recycled copy of the iconic Norwich Castle has been sculpted to celebrate the city's success in reducing waste over the last few years.

Norwich City Council has unveiled the sculpture, which is made entirely out of materials that you can recycle from home in Norwich.  Unveiled at the larger Caen stone original, the sculpture provides a visual representation of the variety of materials that can be recycled from home, specifically just a sample of the range of plastic bottles that can be diverted from landfill.

Norwich has seen its recycling rate double in a two year period, and last year people living in the city reduced their waste collectively by almost 10 per cent! That figure put Norwich in the top ten areas from across the whole country for sending less waste to landfill.  Cllr Julie Brociek-Coulton, executive member for residents and customer care, said: "This is such a great way to say thanks to the people of Norwich for their hard work, and to inspire them to carry on, or even do a little more.  We find that glass and plastic bottles are the things that get forgotten about when people are sorting their recycling, so have a double check on what goes in which bin before you throw it away."

This success is supported by figures released today by Recycle Now, which show that recycling rates have increased by 29 percentage points in the east of England since 1999; with over one million tonnes of waste diverted from landfill in 2008-09.

Additional new research released today reveals that in the east, only two per cent of people feel recycling is a waste of time and nearly all of us (99 per cent) are recycling at least one item. Reusing unwanted items is also popular with over a quarter of us (27 per cent) taking unwanted goods to charity shops and nine per cent selling their items online.

Laura Underwood from Recycle Now said: "In this country we are getting better at recycling. The amount of waste we send to landfill is constantly falling, and nearly everyone is recycling at least one material. But if everyone recycled the full range of materials routinely collected in our areas, like plastic bottles, glass or metals, we could really improve upon this."

Back to news