Reduce Your Waste

Waste Hierarchy Triangle, prevent, reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, dispose

Reduce:

  • Find out ways that you can recycle your coffee pods at podback.org Refillable pods are also available to buy online from major retailers.
  • Buy eggs in recyclable cardboards or plastic cartons, not polystyrene.
  • Buy drinks and alcoholic beverages in plastic bottles or glass and Tetra Pak containers to one of our recycling sites.
  • Buy pasta, tea, cereal in cardboard rather than plastic packaging.
  • Buy all fruit and vegetables without an extra plastic bag; if paper bags are available use these instead.
  • Avoid double-bagging your shopping.
  • Use recyclable bags, remember to take them with you when shopping to load straight in to.
  • Reuse envelopes and wrapping paper where possible.
  • Use rechargeable batteries.
  • Buy goods manufactured from recycled products.

Re-use:

Save on resources by re-using what you can. This includes:

  •  Passing on clothes to relatives, friends or charity shops.
  •  Using items for arts and crafts.
  •  Selling useful items such as working electrical goods rather than disposing of them.
  •  Re-use carrier bags when shopping.
  •  Remodel items such as cutting the bottom off a plastic drinks bottle and use it as a mini cloche for seeds or a funnel for re-filling bird feeders. 
  •  Use boxes, cartons, bottles and jars for storing household items.
  •  Use real nappies rather than disposable ones.
  •  Home compost your kitchen and garden waste.

Food Waste

Almost 20 per cent of food brought into the home is thrown away. That’s like throwing one bag of shopping away out of every five. Wasting food is estimated to cost the average household £470 a year and up to £700 for families.

Here is some advice on how to reduce the amount of food wasted.

Plan ahead

  • Save time and money by checking what's already in the cupboard, fridge and freezer before you go shopping.
  • Check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for recipe ideas for the food you already have - have a look under 'recipes' and 'what food needs using up'.

Know your dates

  • Food can be eaten right up to the end of the use-by date
  • Best before dates are used for quality so you can sometimes still eat certain foods after this date.

There are many other ways in which we can all help to reduce unnecessary waste and increase our recycling:

Recycling myths and understanding recycling symbols

Recycling myths and why recycling is important can be found at Recycle Now where you will also find information on understanding recycling symbols.