Be honest, do you actually recycle or do you just leave it to your parents? Well, according to recent studies, the level of household waste which is recycled in the UK has fallen for the first time since 2010 to only 44.3%. But what can we do to increase this figure again and why do we even need to care in the first place? 

Moreover, it is a fact that approximately 1 billion plastic bags are used each day, despite this, only about 1% is actually being recycled. Quite shocking right? Inevitably, this is a drastic cause of concern because as a result, landfills are filling up faster than ever, increasing the levels of pollution. This is evident as in 1960, only about 1% of all municipal waste was made up of plastic, however this soon escalated to 12%. This may not sound too bad but what if I told you that this is equivalent to 31 million tons of plastic, bearing in mind that 1 plastic bag takes about 1,000 years to decompose. Thus, if we continue at the rate we are currently going at we may soon enough be swimming in litter. 

But what can we do to combat this? 

There are many schemes and programmes being put in place on websites such as TerraCycle and also in schools. As a member of The Sydney Russell School I am proud to say that we, as a community take recycling very seriously. From the "sculpture challenge" to the "litter rush" we understand the fundamental significance of keeping our Earth clean. 

However, is recycling actually as helpful as the media portrays it to be or is this it too overrated? 

First of all, many argue how recycling may not be as glamorous as it is perceived due to the fact that recycling sites are typically always unhygienic, unsightly and unsafe. On top of this, recycling is not very widespread, in other words this process is not necessarily widely embraced as it could potentially be. For example, the conservation of trees at school is simply incomparable to the high levels of mass deforestation and oil spills occurring in industry.  

Notwithstanding these factors of concern, it is still important to remember that ultimately, we all need to feel responsible for the environment we live in, thus we should try our hardest to do what we can to preserve this Earth that we call home. 

By Umeh Jamiath, The Sydney Russell School