Why recycling?

Recycling helps to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill sites.

In the UK in 2003/04 it is estimated that 30 million tonnes of household waste was collected and of that 72% is buried in the ground.

Not only are existing landfill sites filling up, they produce dangerous levels of methane gas - contributing to the Greenhouse effect (more).

The government has put in place targets to reduce landfill, but to reach these targets; it is essential that we all do our bit and help the environment.

Fortnightly Rubbish Collections

More and more councils are now switching to fortnightly waste collections to try and encourage people to reduce their waste.

Some households struggle to manage and need to find solutions in how to reduce their waste. In addition, a lot of householders are finding their rubbish bins are attracting maggots and are becoming a health hazard.

Thankfully, there are some simple steps you can take which resolve these problems, helping you reduce your own personal levels of waste.

How to reduce, reuse or recycle different items

Compacting your rubbish

It might seem like 'cheating', but it makes a lot of sense to compact the rubbish in your wheelie bin.

Compacting your rubbish means it takes up less space in the wheelie bin. In many cases you can fit twice as much compacted rubbish in your bin as you can uncompacted rubbish.

Compacting your rubbish is good: it takes less space to transport and when it goes into landfill, it takes up less space.

You can buy rubbish compactors that you hook onto the handle of your wheelie bin and then press down to crush the rubbish in the bin. The best known of these products is the Binstomper, which can compact your waste by as much as half.

Practice makes perfect!

Deciding to reduce your level of rubbish is easy and many of the steps only take a little bit of thought and a few minutes to implement.

As Human Beings, we're all creatures of habit. Once you've made the decision to reduce your level of rubbish, make it a good habit! Let everyone who lives in your house know what they need to do, make it easy to do it and then start doing it yourself.

After a few days, you'll find reducing your levels of waste simply becomes another habit.

When you are looking to buy an item, ask yourself if you really need it.

Check to see if there is an alternative which can be purchased with less packaging, or that is more energy efficient.

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