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Reduce Your Waste

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Waste is the amount of rubbish a household produces that cannot be recycled.

Approximately 18% of household waste comes from packaging. If you look carefully at what you buy at the supermarket you can reduce the amount of waste that you produce.

Approximately ²/₃ household rubbish can be recycled, the rest is waste. This waste goes into landfill sites and creates pollution. We can aim to reduce the amount of waste we create by reducing, reusing, and recycling. We can minimise the amount of waste we create by looking critically what we buy.

You can reduce waste by:

• Buying only what you need
• Avoid pointless and compulsive purchases, what's the point of paying for something you're not going to use?
• See if you can borrow or share things with friends and family
• Plan carefully what you are going to buy before going shopping
• People who write shopping lists tend to make less compulsive purchases
• Buying products that can be reused
• Buy bottles of drink instead of cans
• Buy refills for goods rather than new boxes
• Use rechargeable batteries, they also end up much cheaper
• They create less waste each time you use them!
• Buying products with less packaging, or packaging that can be recycled
• Buy products in tins and jars rather than plastic sachets which are difficult to reuse or recycle
• Why buy packaging that you have to throw away, its better not to buy it at all
• Buy loose fruit and vegetables and take old bags to put them in
• If you or your family use large amount of something, buy in bulk as this reduces packaging (but remember don't buy more than you need!)
• Selling unwanted things rather than throwing them away
• Make use of internet auction sites to sell your products with little hassle or place an advert in your local paper
• If you have a lot of unwanted things then a car boot sale is also a good way to make some cash
• Reducing paper waste by signing up to the preferential mail service
• The direct marketing association allows people to unsubscribe to junk mail
• DMA Website »
• Buying products with recyclable packaging, or even better products with no packaging!
• Why does a cucumber need to be shrink-wrapped, it has its own protective skin!
• Seeing if you actually need to buy something!
• Save your cash and the planet!
• Buying better quality products that won't break so easily and so last longer
• Have you heard the phrase "buy cheap, buy twice"?
• Using refillable and reusable containers for storage
• When going shopping take your own bags. Either use thick plastic bags that last longer and can be bought cheaply from supermarkets or buy a material bag and look trendy while shopping.
• Choosing paper packaging over plastic, its easier to recycle!
• Many Local Councils say that they can recycle plastic, but this is limited to one or two types. Paper is universally recyclable.