Recycling

Written By Admin
Dated: February 22, 2007

View More Articles

Print Friendly Page

Recycling is now something which many of us do on a weekly basis, but it needs to become an activity which every household and business in the country participates in as a matter of course.

Recycling is important for our environment and for our planet. It is a fact that, on average, every person in the UK throws away their own body weight in rubbish every 7 weeks. If we do not succeed in encouraging more and more people to recycle the amount of waste going to land fill sites will soon exceed the capacity which the sites are able to deal with.

It is now possible to recycle much of our rubbish, such as glass, paper, cardboard, plastic, tins and cans, from our doorsteps as local councils now run Kerbside Collection Schemes. You can obtain collection boxes from your local council for free and sort your rubbish on a daily basis. Bottles, tins and plastic containers need to be rinsed out in your washing up water before being sorted.

If you live in an area or rural location where you do not have a kerbside collection scheme in place, there are many locations where you can take your recycling. Most supermarkets have bottle banks and paper banks etc, so you can recycle at the same time as doing your weekly shop. Or you can find the location of your nearest household waste tipping scheme to recycle larger objects as well as cardboard etc.

Another way of recycling is to re-use plastic bags from shops and supermarkets. In the UK alone, more than 10 billion carrier bags are produced each year. Most bags are only used once and can take up to 100 years to decompose. Up to 80% of shoppers put everything into free carrier bags at the supermarket, so better still decline the offer of plastic bags when shopping and purchase your own jute or canvas shopping bags which can be used over and over again.

You can also reduce the amount of rubbish you acquire by simply buying products which have less packaging. Try to avoid convenience foods which come in layers of packaging, try to buy refills for cleaning products and buy reusable products rather than items such as throwaway razors. Buy loose fruit and vegetables rather than pre-packed items and try to find goods which have a high recycled content.

It is also possible to recycle clothes, books and unwanted items via clothes banks or charity shops.

Larger items which you no longer need can find a new home via a Free-cycling website such as Don’tDumpThat or Freecycle. Go to their website, join up and you can offer items which you no longer need or indeed, look for something which you do need.