Top Tips for Reducing your Waste & Recycling
Zero Waste Website
This website is run by a family as they try to achieve Zero Waste - they are aiming to recycle & reduce their landfill waste down to nothing!
The website is full of useful information on waste reduction and offers Monthly Challenges such as saying no to paper bills & saying no to carrier bags. There are also discussions around things that make it hard to get to the Zero Waste target such as the plastic covering on electrical plugs attached to new goods and those little bits of plastic that come round the top of jam jars etc.
If you dont feel up for the challenge of getting your landfill waste down to Zero, then browse our suggestions below to help you to reduce the waste we make in the first place.
Shopping
Close the Loop! Basically there is no point in recycling if there is no end market for the product.
- Try to buy recycled products wherever you can. Look for recycled paper products such as toilet roll, wrapping paper, note paper.
- Shop Smart - make a list and stick to it in the supermarket, we buy a lot of food that just gets thrown away. Not only will you reduce waste but you will save yourself money too.
- Try to avoid buying items with large & unnecessary amounts of packaging.
- When you buy a pint of milk or a soft drink, think about the container it is in. It is better to choose the product in the container you know you can recycle locally.
- Try to reuse bags whenever possible and refuse uneccessary bags. Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime.
- Most supermarkets offer some kind of ‘bag for life' scheme, you buy a bag for 10p and re-use it until it wears out then they replace it free of charge.
- Buy loose products wherever possible to cut down on packaging.
- Buy re-usable goods rather than single-use disposable items wherever possible, for example- nappies, razors, and cameras.
- Buy refill packs or look for returnable bottles wherever possible.
- Wherever possible buy refillable plastic containers.
- Buy larger packs of food and split them -e.g putting some bread buns in the freezer for later (in a reusable freezer bag of course!), splitting packs of biscuits into lunch boxes rather than buying individually wrapped packets.
Why not try to buy birthday or Christmas gifts made from recycled / fairly traded / organic materials. This is more environmentally sustainable. There are lots of websites now offering a wide selection gifts for all occasions.
You could also consider giving waste-free gifts such as tickets to the theatre or cinema, or a voucher for a massage or a lesson such as sky diving.
Why not have a look at the ideas on the following sites:
ExploRE (uses lots of recycled metals)
There are many other sites too, it really is worth looking around for sustainable gift & shopping ideas.
Better still give a gift with a difference - gifts that are sustainable and produce no packaging or waste, and they help us to think a little more widely in our world of consumerism. For example:
Donate a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped
World Vision Alternative Gift catalogue
Adopt a rare British vegetable!
Try making your own gifts, saving resources, packaging and quite likely some money too. Try baking some muffins or making some chocolates for a personal touch.
Packaging gifts - try using plain popped popcorn as packaging to protect gifts. Its not only very cheap and fun to make but can be composted by the gift recipient!
Useful Websites
There are several websites now where you can donate your unwanted items to other people locally. Its always worth a try as one persons junk is another persons treasure!
The most well know is FreeCycle - this has local groups across the country hosted by Yahoo. Haywards Heath FreeCycle
Freegle are very similar to Freecycle with local groups making it easy to find new homes for your items (and to find things that you need!) Freegle main page, Freegle Burgess Hill and Freegle Haywards Heath.
You could also try the newer Free2Collect, EFreeko, 2recycle.co and SnaffleUp.
Paper
- Try not to use as much in the first place! Use the back of sheets of paper as well as the front - look to see if that piece of paper you were going to put in the bin could be used as scrap paper, to make a shopping list, to jot down your dental appointment or to leave a note for someone.
- Only print out that email if its absolutely essential!
- Buy recycled paper products wherever possible. Fibre from recycled telephone directories is being used to make egg cartons, cat litter, jiffy bags and animal bedding among other things!
- Re-use envelopes - sticky labels to cover the old address and re-seal the envelope are widely available, also made from recycled paper. Many charities sell them, so you can support them at the same time.
- Playgroups and schools would probably appreciate being given odd rolls of wallpaper, or any other kind of paper, for painting on or for other uses in the classroom. They are also often glad to receive newspapers to cover the tables for craft activities.
- Stop unwanted junk mail being delivered:contact the Mailing Preference Service or tel: 020 7291 3310 to have your name removed from mailing lists.
- Donate unwanted magazines to waiting rooms in doctors and dentists.
TAKE-AWAY MENUS ONLINE! Are you fed up of the number of take-away menus coming through your letter box and ending up in your recycling bin? A new local business is trying to reduce the number of menus being produced. 'Flippingmenus' is working with local businesses to get all menus online in one, easy to search, place. So next time you fancy a takeway in Mid Sussex why not take a look at flippingmenus
Shredded Paper can be recycled but also has other uses;
- It can be used as protective packing in boxes if moving house or storing fragile items.
- It can be used as animal bedding, but first check it is suitable for your pet.
- It can be composted along with kitchen peelings or garden waste at home in a compost heap or compost bin. You can avoid the paper being blown around by mixingwith wet materials or making it damp.
Cardboard
- Some removal firms will supply cardboard boxes which they then take back for reuse.
- Cardboard makes excellent compost. Scrunch it up and put it in your compost bin with kitchen and garden waste. It also makes excellent mulch for vegetable beds
Compost
Home-made compost makes an excellent soil conditioner and a rich source of plant food. It's easy AND it's free! About a third of the average household refuse bin is made up of waste that could be composted.
Electrical Appliances & Batteries
- Use wind-up or solar appliances where possible, e.g. radios and calculators. Then you can listen to the radio during power cuts, or when you are working in the garden, without using batteries.
- Always ensure when buying a new printer that its cartridges can be recycled.
- Use rechargeable batteries, wind up or solar powered equipment.
Reuse glass bottles and jars for storing odds and ends or donate to a local jam maker.
Food & Drink Cans
- You do not have to remove the labels from the tins as these are fired off during the extremely hot smelting process.
- Use a can crusher to make storage easier.
Textiles, books, bric-a-brac
- Try to mend or repair than throwing away items straight away, we have become a ‘throw away' society and we can no longer afford to continue like this.
- Take your unwanted clothes and books etc to charity shops, or try selling at a car boot sale.
- About 80% of the people in the UK wear only 20% of the clothes they own. You don't need 20 white shirts! Narrow your wardrobe down to what you actually wear and be more discriminating about what you buy. Do you really need it? Will you wear it? How often?
- Websites like Ebay can make you some money on your unwanted items.
- You could try Freecycle if you have household items you want to get rid of, or if you are looking for something new.
- It is important that textiles for clothing banks or collections are kept dry to avoid mould which ruins them - one bag of damp clothes can contaminate a whole load.
Glasses / Spectacles
- Unwanted glasses can be taken to either Dolland and Aitchinson opticians or Help the Aged stores.
- Send spectacles in good condition (they do not take broken frames or bifocals) to the charity Vision Aid Overseas, 12 The Bell Centre, Newton Road, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex. RH10 2FZ . Vision Aid
CDs & DVDs
- If you are using CDs for data storage, look into using DVDs instead - you can store more data while using less material, thereby reducing the number of discs needed.
- If you use CDs and DVDs primarily for music and movies, rent them or purchase used CDs and DVDs. Each time the discs are reused, it reduces the number of discs that need to be manufactured and disposed of.
- Reuse CDs and DVDs for a variety of craft projects. They are very easy to cut into any shape with ordinary household scissors and can be decorated with a variety of markers and paints. How about making a few Christmas Tree decorations with the children?
Cooking Oil
- Cooking oil can be composted. It's best to mix it first with paper and cardboard.
- A cooking oil and sand mixture will clean garden forks and spades, or if diluted with paraffin it can be rubbed onto outdoor wooden furniture to add life to it.
Lightbulbs
- Use long life low energy light bulbs. Each bulb can save you up to £7 per year on your energy bill and you will reduce the number of bulbs you are sending to landfill.
- Just 7 good quality, low energy lightbulbs could quite literally, last you a lifetime!
Washing Liquids
- Use eco friendly washing balls in your washing machine rather than detergents. EcoBalls replace washing powder in your washing machine, costing 3p per wash compared to 20p-30p for leading detergents. Eco-Balls save on heavy shopping loads and packaging - they are reusable for over 1,000 washes and cost only around 3p per wash. 100% hypo-allergenic, residue-free and anti-bacterial, they are a more natural alternative to conventional washing powders and are ideal for sensitive skins.
In the Garden
- Large plastic bottles make great mini greenhouses and keep slugs out!
- Old car tyres stacked on one another make great planters for potoes.
- Ice lolly sticks can be used to make labels for your plants.
- Use old egg boxes as seed trays
Party time!
- Avoid paper / plastic cups for parties. Hire in crockery, get better quality plastic cups and reuse them or look for biodegradable tableware. Share items for parties with friends and families.
- Try to make sustainable, minimal packaging party bags. Check out the ideas on Ethical Party Bags and Happy Green Earth.
- Dont put out too much food, try to use a menu that allows you to get some extra out of the freezer if it looks as if it will be needed.
Try to make waste free packed lunches for yourself and your children. This will not only reduce your impact on the environment but most likely save you money too.
- Wrap sandwiches in re-useable bags.
- Split packets of biscuits etc into small re-useable tubs or bags rather than buying individually wrapped packets.
- Use a flask or re-useable drinks bottle, rather than buying individual drinks every day.
- Bring banana peels & apple cores home to compost.
- Avoid highly packaged items like cheese dunkers. Instead use a small plastic tub of cream cheese and something to dunk from a larger packet.
Take away menus
Are you fed up of the number of take-away menus coming through your letter box and ending up in your recycling bin? A new local business is trying to reduce the number of menus being produced. 'Flippingmenus' is working with local businesses to get all menus online in one, easy to search, place. So next time you fancy a takeway in Mid Sussex why not take a look at flippingmenus
Pens
Buy a nice pen that you can get refills for, you will probably find it writes better too! Figures on how many pens we throw away are hard to obtain but it is estimated that about 4 thousand million pens are thrown out daily in the US
Medicine
Take unwanted medicines back to the chemist in their original bottles. They will then be diposed of safely.
Polythene Magazine Wrappers
You can send clean polythene wrappers to Polyprint for recycling for details contact - Polyprint tel: 01603 721807
Last updated 23 / 03 / 10
Downloads/Links
Free2collect - a website if the nations unwanted items
Freegle - find new homes for unwanted items at a local level. Burgess Hill group and Haywards Heath group
Freecycle - advertise your unwanted goods and swap them for something you do want!
EFreeko - like a free ebay!
2recycle - another site were you can advertise your free unwanted goods to people in your locality.
SnaffleUp - another website offering free advertising for items you have to give away.
Contacts
Waste Management Team
Email: wastematters@midsussex.gov.uk
Tel: 01444 477440
