THE Recycle Devon Flag has been raised raised aloft County Hall as Recycle Week gets underway.

The nation's biggest annual celebration of recycling, now in its 22nd year, runs from today, Monday, September 22 to Sunday, September 28.

And Devon County Council (DCC) are, once again, getting involved in the action.

DCC’s cabinet member for Climate Change and Bio-diversity, Jacqi Hodgson and the Vice Chair of the Devon Authorities Strategic Waste Committee, Ruth Williams were joined by the authority’s Chief Executive, Donna Manson, at the flag raising to mark the beginning of the event.

The week aims to raise awareness of missed items for recycling and there will be an online Q and A session on Wednesday, September 24 via Recycle Devon’s Facebook page.

This year Recycle Week will shine a spotlight on missed ‘capture’ items that too often end up in the rubbish bin but can, and should, be recycled.

Following the success of last year’s campaign, Rescue Me! Recycle returns with three new characters joining the recycling mission: shampoo bottles; foil and toothpaste tubes.

Thanks to industry innovation and Waste Resource Action Programme’s (WRAP) technical expertise, toothpaste tubes can now be collected by some local authorities at kerbside collections for recycling—marking a major step forward in tackling hard-to-recycle items.

The above three items join the list from last year: trigger sprays; aerosols; yoghurt pots; aftershave and perfume bottles and toilet roll tubes.

Councillor Jacqi Hodgson said: ‘Devon is making great strides in recycling.

‘By rescuing those missed items, we can make our recycling efforts even more impactful.

‘Let’s keep up the great work and make our county’s recycling better than ever before!’

To find out more about Recycle Week, visit: www.recyclenow.com/RecycleWeek

To find out more about reducing, reusing, repairing and recycling in Devon, visit www.recycledevon.org