50+ top tips for cutting waste
So many readers of our supporter magazine - Earthmatters - contacted us about our list of tips for reducing waste in their life that we've decided to share them with our online readers.
- Use your kerbside recycling scheme, if you have one, as provided for under the new Household Waste Recycling Act.
- Next Valentine's Day or Easter, send an e-card instead of a paper one - nearly 10,000 of our e-cards were sent in December. See http://www.foe.co.uk/cards/index.html.
- Avoid disposable batteries - use rechargeable ones with solar powered rechargers.
- Refuse plastic carrier bags - use a cotton one instead.
- Buy loose fruit and veg from a local market or grocer rather than highly-packaged goods from supermarkets - it can be cheaper too.
- Buy cotton cloths for the kitchen clean-up instead of disposable kitchen roll.
- Buy refills for sturdy packs of washing powders, liquids, salt, etc.
- Use a milk delivery service - the glass bottle kind - if there's one in your area.
- Home compost your garden and kitchen waste - most councils now offer advice.
- The fibres from your old clothes can be shredded and rewoven. Try British Red Cross shops www.redcross.org.uk, tel: 020 7235 5454.
- Norman Baker (Lewes): While we are considering innovative recycling, may I tell the hon. Lady that I have a constituent who had a couple of gallstones removed and has made them into very attractive earrings? (Hansard, 14 March 2003 : Column 537.)
- Buy reconditioned electrical appliances from organisations such as CREATE (London, tel: 0208 885 6209; Liverpool tel: 0151 448 1748).
- Start a paper-recycling scheme at work - for further information about community recycling in your area, contact the Community Recycling Network: tel: 0117 942 0142, http://www.crn.org.uk/or info@crn.org.uk.
- Avoid patio-heaters and electric lights in the garden - use citronella beeswax or vegetable-based candles to keep insects away.
- Old fridges contain CFCs and HCFCs. Recycle them and buy a "Greenfreeze" model. Retailer Comet will collect your old one and deliver it to Ozone Friends where it will be reconditioned and sold, or CFCs will be removed.
- For support with reducing waste and energy consumption in the workplace contact Global Action Plan or tel: 020 7405 5633.
- Steel plate recovered from cans each year in Western Europe weighs as much as 132 Eiffel Towers but we could do better. Take your cans to one of the 2,000 Save-a-Can banks across Britain, or visit the Steel Can Recycling Information Bureau: http://www.scrib.org/or call 01639 872 626.
- Only print when you really need to. Friends of the Earth designs emails that are easily readable on screen. Sign up for our monthly E-news full of environmental news, information and campaign actions.
- If you do print, use both sides of the paper.
- Use software to reduce paper usage - visit http://www.software-partners.co.uk/for details of Fineprint which could save you 25% to 50% of your paper and toner usage.
- Recycle your inkjet cartridges - visit http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/for information.
- Bear in mind the amount of energy your PC uses - don't leave it on standby all day.
- Don't throw away old computers - sell them online (http://www.ebay.co.uk/), donate them to charity (http://www.digital-links.org/), donate to someone else (http://www.donateapc.org.uk/) or recycle them (http://www.wasteonline.org.uk/).
- Polyprint Mailing Films will accept clean polythene wrappers and bags for recycling. Email: info@polyprint.co.uk.
- Britons illegally dump 994 cars a day. Report abandoned vehicles to the Eco Salvage project at http://www.ecosalvage.com/, tel 01404 831 071.
- The Wuppertal Institute calculates that the amount of waste generated in producing everyday products is 1.5 kg for a toothbrush, 75 kg for a mobile phone and 1,500 kg for a personal computer.
- Stop your old mobile phone or printer cartridges going to landfill by contacting Oxfam, ActionAid or Rainforest Concern, which will recycle and re-sell them.
- Reduce junk mail pouring through your door by signing up with the Mailing Preference Service, DMA House, 70 Margaret Street , London W1W 8SS; tel 020 7291 3310, http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/.
- Making your own lunch instead of buying from a sandwich shop saves on packaging, and could also save you more than £4 a day or about £1,000 a year.
- Join a toy library to borrow toys and give old ones to other families; see www.natll.org.uk/.
- Scrapstore warehouses - http://www.childrensscrapstore.co.uk/ - provide re-use craft resources for schools and youth groups.
- If each of the UK's 10 million office workers used one fewer staple a day, that could save 120 tonnes of steel a year. To buy a stapleless stapler, contact the Natural Collection at http://www.naturalcollection.com/ ¬
natcol/foe.asp?from=foe.org.uk or tel: 0870 331 3333.
- Install a roller towel at work instead of using disposable paper towels.
- Avoid single-use cameras.
- Hire videos and DVDs, and borrow books from a library rather than buying them.
- Recycle old curtains or exchange them at http://www.thecurtainexchange.net/.
- Having a shower instead of a bath saves about 40 litres of water. Install spray taps for new sinks, as they use less water than normal taps.
- Join the 15 per cent of parents who now use cloth nappies for their babies; contact http://www.realnappycampaign.com/
- Give cinema or concert tickets as gifts instead of disposable goods.
- Old spectacles can be given to high-street opticians to be donated to people around the world.
- Use retread car tyres instead of buying new. Retread Manufacturers Association: http://www.retreaders.org.uk/.
- In Florence Amici della Terra has a campaign to encourage composting of green waste, including 180 depots at schools and in blocks of flats. Visit http://www.foee.org/for more great news from Friends of the Earth's European network.
- Visit the waste pages on Friends of the Earth's award winning website for links to lots of recycling organisations: http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/waste ¬
/links.html.
- Clearing out the attic? Try selling your stuff rather than taking it to the dump. Check out online auction sites like www.ebay.co.uk - where you can also bid for anything from second-hand designer clothes to boats.
- Try reclamation yards, skips, auctions, and second-hand shops when doing DIY. Mend, re-upholster, or restore old furniture before buying new.
- Hire tools or borrow from friends or family for odd jobs, rather than buying your own. Tools for Self Reliance will send your old tools to Africa: http://www.tfsr.org/, tel: 023 80869697.
- Unwanted CDs? Printers Beacon Press runs a recycling scheme: tel: 01825 768611.
- Get a log maker to transform old newspapers into pulp logs, which will burn for up to an hour each. Visit http://www.naturalcollection.com/ ¬
natcol/foe.asp?from=foe.org.uk, or call 0870 331 3333.
- Get a pad of 100 Friends of the Earth re-use mailing labels printed on paper made entirely from post-consumer waste for £2.50 (including p&p); tel: 020 7490 1555.
- Stop subscribing to magazines that you don't have time to read (and save yourself a few quid) - your local library will probably stock a range of periodicals.
- Vending cups can be recycled via the Save a Cup scheme, tel: 01494 510167, http://www.save-a-cup.co.uk/. However, it's much
better to encourage your company to use reusable cups rather than disposable ones.
- To recycle your drink cartons, send them to a mill for recyclingbut be warned they are not freepost. Download address labels and instructions at
www.drinkscartons.com/docs/ ¬
recycling_uk.htm.
- Why not try eco-friendly sanitary products? Such as the reusable Mooncup. http://www.mooncup.co.uk/
Want more? Why not join us now!
Discuss "50+ top tips for cutting waste " in our forum
Main image © Calliste Lelliot/Friends of the Earth
Contact us | Support us | Copyright © Friends of the Earth Trust/Limited
