Holiday makers urged to recycle brochures

Flicking through brochures of exotic destinations might be part of the fun when planning a holiday but, according to Recycle Now, it's a habit that creates a mountain of extra waste.


According to the national recycling campaign, 45 million foreign holidays were booked by Britons last year and the planning process produced some 180 million glossy brochures – more than enough to go round the world if laid end to end.

According to travel agent trade association ABTA, August and September is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the busiest times of the year as consumers pick up their new holiday brochures to start looking for next year’s holiday.

This is also the time when they start thinking of disposing of last year’s brochures now that the summer is nearly over.

With this in mind, Recycle Now has teamed up with the UK’s leading independent charity for sustainable tourism and travel, The Travel Foundation, to encourage people to remember to recycle their old holiday brochures.

Sue Hurdle, chief executive of The Travel Foundation said: “The Travel Foundation is delighted to support Recycle Now in its call to holidaymakers to recycle those old holiday brochures rather than binning them. It’s another link in the chain of reducing the negative impact of travel and if we all recycle, it will make a big difference.”

Many tour operators are becoming more aware of their environmental responsibilities and are recycling their old brochures.

Jane Ashton, head of corporate social responsibility at First Choice said: “At First Choice we recycle our excess brochures within the business, and are working on cutting down the paper we use. We very much encourage our customers to recycle their holiday brochures at home – everything we can do together to recycle paper helps the environment.”

Recycle Now is seeking to encourage people to recycle their brochures using traditional methods – such as kerbside collections or local recycling centres – or better still pass on the borchures to family and friends so they can use them instead of getting new ones.

Other environmentally-friendly options include contacting local play schools to see if they want to use them for art projects, or better yet, book online and avoid using a brochure altogether, says Recycle Now.

Amanda Barry Hirst, head of public relations at Recycle Now said: “People often take numerous brochures from their travel agents to find their ideal holiday, but many don’t know what to do with them once they are out of date.

“It’s now easier than ever to book online but if you do need to pick up a brochure then think how it can be recycled or reused once finished.

“The simplest is for holidaymakers to take advantage of their easy and convenient doorstep recycling service or drop them off at their nearest recycling centre. But it is also worth considering alternatives such as passing them on or using them for children’s creative projects.”

David Gibbs

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