North Herts Council is participating in Recycle Week from October 14 to 20.

This annual event, now in its 21st year, is the 'UK’s biggest recycling celebration'.

The aim is to save five 'packaging heroes' from the rubbish bin.

The latest research from Recycle Now reveals that while nine out of ten people recycle regularly, 79 per cent put recyclable items in the rubbish bin.

To address this issue, Recycle Now has created characters to represent the five most commonly missed recyclable items: Dee Dee the deodorant, Rey the plastic trigger spray, Yogi the yoghurt pot, Fitz the perfume bottle, and humble Hube the toilet roll tube.

Sarah Kingsley, service director-place at North Herts Council, said: "We’re doing our bit to help support residents with recycling."

"We’ve already started collecting plastic film/wrap, often known as soft plastic, from almost 8,000 residents across the district as part of a trial, and from 2025 we’ll collect soft plastics from everyone’s grey recycling bin."

Craig Stephens, senior campaign manager for Recycle Now, said: "We are delighted that North Herts Council is supporting Recycle Week.

"Most people are recycling, and the material we capture has a multitude of uses, so the next step is to ensure everyone captures everything they can."