Reducing the amount of waste you produce and recycling properly can help save money, energy - and the planet.
By reducing the amount of waste you create you can help cut the amount of waste going to landfill. This starts in the supermarket with reusable bags, reduced packaging and smart shopping.
There are many ways you can reduce the amount of waste you produce including:
- Only buying the food you need and making use of leftovers. Love Food Hate Waste (opens in a new window) has some great ideas on how to do this.
- Home composting is a cheap and natural way to transform garden and kitchen waste into compost. Get Composting (opens in a new window) give great tips on what products are available and how to make the best compost.
- Use a bag for life and you can stop 300 plastic bags being sent to landfill each year. These are widely available.
- Opt out of unaddressed mail (junk mail) with Royal Mail (opens in new window).
- Rechargeable batteries can be used several times and save you money as well as reducing waste.
- Opt for reusable products such as reusable nappies.
- Opt for packaging free products, such as shampoo bars and soap bars.
Reuse
Reusing items is better than recycling them, as recycled items have to be reprocessed into something new.
There are many items in your home that you can reuse. This includes ice cream tubs, take away tubs, boxes and furniture.
Donating old furniture to charities is a great way to reuse them. See The Furniture Project (opens in a new window).