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Now for the good news - It’s time to Rethink Rubbish
- Did you know that up to 60% of your bin can be recycled?
- The items you recycle (paper, glass, cans, etc) are valuable resources and can be made into something useful?
- There are recycling banks on supermarket car parks and council sites across the UK. More and more councils also pick up recycling right from your doorstep –it is getting easier and easier for you to recycle.
That’s really good news, because it means that we can all make a massive difference to the UK’s rubbish mountain by just rethinking our rubbish and taking some really simple steps as part of our daily routines - at home, at work or while out shopping.
How?
- Rethink:
- When you buy your fruit and vegetables choose loose rather than buy pre-packaged
- Look for the increasing range of products made from recycled materials:
Did you know that 25 recycled plastic bottles can be recycled to make a fashionable fleece top or that a vending cup can make one pencil?
You can buy a range of high quality and fashionable garden and home accessories from recycled materials such as paper, glass and plastic
- Photocopy on both sides of a piece of paper – it could cut your paper consumption at work by half
- Reuse:
- Your plastic shopping bags – don’t get a new one each time you visit the supermarket, take one of your old ones or better still, ask for a ‘bag for life’
- Take unwanted books, toys or clothes to your local charity shop so they can be re-used
- Have your milk delivered – the average milk bottle is re-used 20 times before being recycled. Milk packaging alone creates enough rubbish to fill over 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools, so having your milk delivered will make a real difference.
- Don’t just throw away unwanted paper at work – use it as scrap paper for writing notes or use it for internal photocopying or faxing
- Recycle:
- Recycling your cans, paper, bottles and jars will save 3 million tonnes of rubbish a year – drop them off at your local recycling banks as part of your regular shopping trips:
- If you recycle the paper and card you currently throw away, you could easily reduce the amount of rubbish in your bin by a third and your old paper can be used to make new paper.
- Did you know that empty aluminium drink cans are worth money. With around 5 billion aluminium drink cans being sold in the UK this year, that’s over £30 million available for you or for a local worthy cause or school to earn through recycling. And they can be recycled time and time again to make new cans.
- Remember to recycle your empty bottles and jars – Each year the average family throws away over 300 of them and glass is 100% recyclable
- Compost your garden and selected household rubbish - this is the biggest content of your bin and it can be easily composted, so buy a compost bin or take it to your local council composting facility.
- Recycle your plastic bottles – we use about 15 million bottles every day and more and more councils are opening recycling facilities
Look out for the distinctive Rethink Rubbish logo which you will see being increasingly used on posters, leaflets and in shops across the country.
To find out more either click onto the relevant sections or to find out details of your nearest facility, click here or ring your local council.
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You can do more than you think to help and it will make a huge difference - around 60% of your rubbish can be recycled
Alistair McGowan
Patron, Rethink Rubbish campaign
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