Don’t forget to recycle your EGGS this Easter – and we’re not talking about the chocolate ones.
Over 12.8 BILIION eggs are eaten in the UK every year – that’s 12.8 BILLION eggshells that can be recycled in food waste caddies across Great Britain!
That’s a lot of ‘EGGstra’ power we could be recovering from food waste.
Did you know that before we started gifting chocolate eggs to honour Easter, many people would tuck in to the traditional ‘eggs and soldiers’ to mark the end of lent, celebrate new life and the start of Spring.
On average around 37M eggs are eaten every day and as we can’t eat the eggshells, that’s an estimated 222 TONNES of inedible food waste! If these eggshells were recycled in your food waste caddy and were converted into energy at the food waste recycling plant in Bryn Pica, Llwydcoed, it would generate enough energy to power over 20 homes every single day from just the EGG SHELLS!
The saddest fact is that around 720M EGGS, including the yolk and whites are wasted every year in the UK! If you know that you may have too many eggs and won’t get around to eating them before they go bad – you can freeze them for up to 3 months! More information can be found at https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/foods-and-recipes/eggs.
In Wales it is estimated that 25% of the average rubbish bag or bin is made up of food and most of this could have been eaten. In 2022 a WRAP black bag analysis in Rhondda Cynon Taf found that 39% of all black bag waste was made up of food waste – the good news is, that the actions that we have taken together over the last three years have helped to reduce this significantly!
Thanks to the standardisation of waste collection in September 2024 there has been a 17% increase in food waste recycled and a 36% decrease in black bag waste collected! We are also consistently recycling over 70% of our waste and are on track to smash the 70% Welsh Governments target.
But there is still more we can do – when we’re tucking in to our chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday or preparing the Sunday roast, let’s think about how we can re-use any leftovers or if that’s not possible recycle all your ‘eggstra’ food waste in your caddy and turn it in to POWER.
Easter Food Waste Facts (UK):
- 8 million hot cross buns wasted
- 5 million slices of leftover roast meat
- 19 million leftover potatoes
- 20 million leftover portions of vegetables
If you’re not already signed up, you can find more information at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/foodwaste.
Over 80 million Easter eggs will be eaten and sold this Easter, resulting in over 9,000 tonnes of packaging waste being generated.
Can you reduce your packaging? Almost two thirds of UK residents believe that Easter eggs are overpackaged. By doing a quick online search before you go to the shops, you can be more clued up to which eggs have the least packaging.
How do you recycle yours? Once you have devoured all of your chocolate Easter Eggs, think before you discard the plastic, foil and cardboard wrappings. The Council provides FREE and easy recycling, with weekly CLEAR bag kerbside collections, along with weekly food waste, weekly Spring green waste and nappy collections. Many local schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf will also be joining in our Easter Egg Recycling Challenge where they will compete to see which school can recycle the most packaging and receive some valuable rewards – please check with your child’s school to see if they have taken on the challenge before sending in your items.
Councillor Ann Crimmings, Cabinet Member for Environment and Leisure said:
“Recycling in RCT is EGG-STRA easy and accessible for all – with a simple, weekly, one clear bag system for dry recyclables and separate food waste recycling.
“I would like to thank residents for joining us in our fight against Climate Change. More and more residents are taking advantage of our fantastic weekly kerbside recycling collection service. All of our Community Recycling Centres are open to the public and are now open extended hours for summer.
“I urge all our residents who are not currently recycling to come together to UP our Recycling GAME - the changes that we all make to our habits now will ensure that we avoid significant fines and safeguard a brighter world for future generations – it’s a GAME we can’t afford to lose!”
Please ensure that food waste is recycled in the right green food waste bags and that you register for nappy collections and green waste collections, if needed, and that nappies are put out in purple bags and green waste into the green sacks. All clean, dry recycling should be placed into CLEAR recycling bags.
There will be NO CHANGE to kerbside recycling and waste collections during the Easter holidays – please place at your normal collection point on your normal day. Please remember to park sensibly so that the recycling vehicles are able to access your street, during this busy time.
Don’t forget that the Council’s Community Recycling Centres (CRCs) are open all over the bank holiday ready to accept all your ‘egg-stra’ recycling from your spring cleaning - opening hours are 8.30am until 6.30pm (summer opening hours). During busy times, there may be some queues due to skip changes etc. – you can view full CRC details online at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/CRCsRules.
Each of these facilities will cater for all recycling needs – a full list of the items accepted can be found at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/communityrecyclingcentres
All centres are staffed, and attendants are happy to advise residents.
Not sure what you can or can't recycle? You can now check online via the searchable A-Z guide at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recyclingsearch.
Fancy checking your recycling knowledge? You can play the fun online recycling game online at www.rctcbc.gov.uk/RecyclingGameOn.
For more information on recycling visit www.rctcbc.gov.uk/recycling
Posted on 14/04/2025