Recycling our waste has many environmental and economic benefits. We can do this in a variety of different ways, the first thing is to reduce the amount of waste you produce, secondly to re-use products and finally to recycle them.
1. Home Compost kitchen and garden waste.
2. Some recycling tips for your garden include;
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Re-use bubble wrap to protect plants and containers against frost
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Net curtains can be re-used for shading areas of the garden and as carrotfly barriers
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Re-use ice lolly sticks for labelling up your plants
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Old bottle corks make excellent cane toppers
3. Stop junk mail by contacting the Mailing Preference Service, Freepost 22, London, W1E 7EZ www.mpsonline.org.uk.
4. Stop unaddressed mail ~ write to your Royal Mail (Consignia) sorting office requesting that unaddressed mail is not delivered to your property.
5. Yellow Pages cannot be collected in either the paper panks or kerbside collection schemes, however there are specific Yellow Pages containers at the Community Recycling Centres (tips). The Council alsoencourages Yellow Pages recycling in local primary schools, through "The Yellow Woods Challenge" in association with Yell Group and the Woodlands Trust.
6. Make more use of your local library. Not only can you borrow many books for nothing, the larger libraries have videos, CD's and cassettes for loan at very low prices. They have magazines and daily newspapers for you to browse, large reference sections and withdrawn books for sale.
7. Treat your children to some different toys by borrowing from a toy library
8. Buy Recycled ~ Choose goods made with recycled materials. Items such as recycled tissues, refuse sacks, stationery, kitchen rolls and toilet roll is widely available from supermarkets. Increase in purchasing will encourage the market place demand for waste materials and reduce the need to extract raw materials in the manufacturing process.
9. SNUB ~ say no to unnecessary bags. When out shopping re-use carrier bags or use strong bags/baskets such as those available through the bag for life schemes at most supermarkets
10. Avoid disposable products such as razors, biros and nappies. An incredible eight million disposable nappies are thrown into the main waste stream every day in the UK alone! Many parents are now opting to use modern cotton nappies to wash at home or via a laundry Service. Contact Tristan Ash on 01472 325843 for further details.
11. Re-use containers for storage.
12. Try and help to reduce the amount of packaging when shopping. Here are some simple ideas which will help;
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Consider buying your food from Farmers Markets.
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Contact one of the local organic farms which do a home delivery service in the area:
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Weigh & Save shops (loose food) have less packaging.
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Make the most of 'Bulk Buying Schemes'
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Re-use plastic bags from supermarkets and greengrocers for fruit and vegetables
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Pick-Your-Own farms are a great opportunity to choose fresh produce of your own quality standards and also help to reduce packaging.
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If you buy locally produced products ask if the producer would welcome the empty jars, bottles or containers back.
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Reduce your use of washing detergent by using a laundry ball or soap nuts.
13. Use the milkman for deliveries of milk, fruit juices and soft drinks. The bottles are refilled on average 12 times. Any bottles that are damaged when returned are also recycled along with any foil from pressed bottle tops.
14. Repair broken items and damaged clothes rather than buying new.
15. Consider making some money out of your unwanted items of clothing. Try one of the local clothing exchanges or go online.
16. Support your local charity shops as they are full of bargains and will gratefully receive any donations. Old clothes, shoes, bags etc. can also be donated to jumble sales or placed in the Salvation Army banks situated at many of the recycling points within the district.
17. Avoid batteries where ever possible. If you use a lot of batteries, consider buying rechargeable ones that last for years. They are now widely available through battery suppliers.
18. Buy energy efficient light bulbs, lasting around ten times longer than an ordinary bulb they can save you around £10 a year.
19. Used engine oil can be cleaned for industrial re-use. There is a special collection tank at the Community Recycling Centre at Gilbey Road, Grimsby.
20. Businesses that have a vending machine or water dispenser using plastic cups can get involved by joining The Save A Cup recycling scheme.
21. Used printer cartridges from home PC's can be re-manufactured, and are much cheaper to purchase than new ones.