We all know the term ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’ – but what does that actually mean? Here are some tips on reducing waste, reusing items and recycling what you can in your area.
Reduce
Reducing your waste is a great way to save money and help the environment. There are lots of ways to cut down:
- Buy only what you need.
- Buy loose fruit and vegetables to avoid taking home lots of packaging.
- Sign up to paperless billing or banking if you're online.
- Buy products with refillable packaging.
- Compost food waste, if you can.
- Use refillable water bottles and cups.
- Try repairing and upcycling your clothing.
- Buy items that will last longer instead of using disposable items.
Reuse
Reusing items is another great way to save money, here are some great tips on reusing:
- Donate items that are still in a good, usable condition to charities or charity shops.
- Find another use for those empty glass bottles and jars, plastic and cardboard containers.
- Take a reusable shopping bag out with you.
- Reuse wrapping paper or gift bags.
- Turn old clothing, towels or sheets into cleaning rags and cloths to give them a second life.
- Sell your items on www.freecycle.org or a local online selling group.
Recycle
What you can recycle in your area will depend on what your local council collects. There are a number of ways you can recycle:
- Use your local council's kerbside collection service.
- Take items to your local recycling site.
- Find out what you can recycle in your local shops and supermarkets - for example, batteries and water filters, and even soft plastic packaging (check what's allowed but it may include cereal packet inners and crisp packets).
Visit your local council's website for more information. Please remember that recycling something that's not collected can contaminate a whole batch of recyclable materials - it's better to recycle less than guess!
If you want to do more, look for local Facebook groups about people who are collecting specific items for charity or run public drop-off points for recycling schemes like TerraCycle.
You can also find out more information on making recycling easy on the Recycle Now website.