Buying recycled products - closing the loop

In the UK, most people have access to recycling via kerbside collections or recycling bins at designated areas in the local community.
With more and more waste being produced nationally and internationally, recycling has never been so important.

Some eye-opening waste facts
* In less than 2 hours the UK produces enough waste to fill the Albert Hall*
* Each year, we throw away enough aluminium cans to make three separate piles that would reach to the moon
* Every tonne of recycled paper saves 17 trees
* Each UK household produces more than 1 tonne of rubbish annually
* Every year, the average dustbin contains enough unrealised energy for 500 baths, 3500 showers or 5000 hours of TV
* We each throw away our own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks
* The cost of managing the municipal waste produced in England is around £1.6 billion per year
* Babies disposable nappies take 500 years to decompose
* At current levels of household waste growth, municipal waste levels will have doubled by the year 2020

Putting your rubbish in a recycling bank or separating it for collection is only one element of the recycling loop.

To fully play your part you should also consider buying products that have a recycled content.

The word ''recycling'' is often used to mean the return of materials to be recycled, via bottle banks, waste paper collections etc. However, this is only the first stage of the process. The collected materials have to be sorted and cleaned, then reprocessed and, finally, manufactured into new items which can be sold.

Recycling, therefore, involves all four stages - collection, sorting, manufacturing and purchasing.

Unless all four stages take place, recycling will not work. If markets do not exist for the collected material, it piles up, often at great expense, and cannot be used. The final stage, purchasing of recycled products, is vital for recycling to be economic.

It is as important for consumers to buy recycled products. By buying products containing recycled materials, you are sending out a clear message to retailers that there is a demand for such products.

Over the past few years many of the major supermarkets in the UK have extended their range of recycled products. They are responding to customer demand for eco-friendly goods and trying to show off their eco-credentials.

Sainsburys is arguably one of the 'greenest' supermarkets with FSC approved paper products, bio-degradable bin and food bags and compostable packaging on it's organic range of fruit and veg.

There is still a long way to go as 80% of shoppers put everything into free carrier bags at the supermarket so retailers still hand out 150m plastic bags in the UK every week

But consumer power can make a difference and if there is demand for recycled products, then retailers will supply that demand.

At Pouch, our particular focus is on utilising recycled fabric.

TRAID have some interesting facts on their website:

"Consumers purchase 2.15 million tonnes of new clothing and shoes each year in the UK. In order to make room for all the new clothes, they are throwing away the old. Over 900,000 million items of clothing are thrown away each year in this country alone. Discarded clothing and shoes are typically sent to landfill. Textiles present particular problems in landfill. Synthetic (man-made fibres) products do not decompose. Woollen garments do decompose, but in doing so they produce methane, which contributes to global warming and climate change...
...Meanwhile, the fashion industry is producing new styles and trends for the high street at a frantic pace. This is having a negative effect on the environment as virgin resources are being used faster than they can be produced, toxic pesticides and other chemicals are being used to grow cotton and energy is being used to transport products around the globe."
TRAID website

Therefore, we think it is very important to re-use fabrics to prevent them going to landfill.

So by 'closing the loop' through purchasing products made partially or wholly from reclaimed materials, we can ensure that the market for reclaimed materials remains strong and recycling schemes will flourish.

About Pouch
At Pouch we make unique accessories and homeware from vintage and recycled material. Our range includes not only bags, but belts, peg bags and bag dispensers too. Due to the fact we use vintage fabric, many of our items are one-offs and the vast majority are limited edition. Our products are robust, practical and very stylish. Individually hand crafted and skillfully sewn to a high standard, you can be assured our handmade products have not been mass produced and nobody was exploited in making them. Our ethos is to promote low impact, environmentally friendly, local production.