Cotswold District Council urged residents to join in with the Big Recycling Hunt.

The council backed this year's Recycle Now campaign (October 16-22), encouraging Cotswold inhabitants to hunt down and recycle "forgotten treasures" tucked away in cupboards or dumped in rubbish bins.

The Big Recycling Hunt aims to bring attention to items that oftentimes slip our minds or even those that we're unaware can be recycled.

Glass perfume and aftershave bottles, for instance, are frequently discarded, with 54 per cent of the public admitting to going straight for the bin instead of recycling.

For Cotswold locals, however, all that’s needed is to place them in their black box alongside their glass jars and bottles.

Shampoo bottles often suffer the same fate, with the council estimating that if every resident of the Cotswold district recycled just one additional shampoo bottle, enough energy could be saved to boil 180,000 kettles.

Councillor Mike Evemy, portfolio holder for Waste and Recycling at Cotswold District Council, said: “Over half of UK residents admit to not always recycling common items, including plastic pots, tubs and trays as well as food tins and drink cans from the kitchen.

"Bathroom items aren’t always recycled either despite it being easy and simple to do so. Shampoo and conditioner bottles, plastic detergent and cleaning bottles and empty aerosols all appear in the top six of items that most frequently get forgotten when it comes to recycling according to Recycle Now.

“Thanks to the on-going efforts of our residents, Cotswold District is regularly placed in the top five per cent of English councils for recycling, which is a fantastic achievement. But we want to do more and we know residents do too."

Recycle Now offers tips on recycling bathroom items on its website (https://www.recyclenow.com/how-to-recycle/bathroom-recycling).

Locals can also find information on what can and can't be recycled at the kerbside on the Cotswold District Council’s website (https://www.cotswold.gov.uk/bins-and-recycling/what-to-put-in-your-bin/).

The Gloucestershire Waste Wizard online tool can also assist residents in finding the most sustainable disposal options for unwanted household items, and can be visited on: www.cotswold.gov.uk/wastewizard.