Do You Recycle Your Waste?
Well, we all have good intentions don’t we? And it isn’t made easy for us with every county in the land seeming to operate completely different systems – often a mix between kerbside collection, different bin systems, and alternating collection weeks!
However, help is at hand. Here we offer you a guide of how to organise yourself so that recycling becomes second nature.
It’s All In The Organisation!
Its true, once you have a good system in place, recycling household waste actually becomes very simple. First of all you need to decide on a single space in which to keep your recycling. This could be the utility room, the kitchen, the garage, or your outside bin area.
Next, you need to find a minimum of three large receptacles in which to sort and collect your waste. This doesn’t need to be a big investment – if stored in the dry, large cardboard boxes will do and for those who don’t have much room, there are now several very good space-saving designs on the market which stack on top of each other while still allowing you access to put waste items in.
Finally, label your bins depending on how you wish to sort your household waste. For instance, if your council collects a mix of recyclable waste, and takes it away for sorting, then you may be able to use one box for lots of different types of waste. But if you wish to pre-sort your waste for taking to your local recycling centre, then several smaller boxes may be better for you, and also easier to lift and transport.
What Can Be Recycled?
Almost anything can be recycled by using a little imagination. Recycling doesn’t just mean that it can be broken down in order to re-make another product from the same material – it means that you are using a product more than once rather than merely throwing it away where it will go to landfill.
Materials which can be taken to a recycling centre are the following:
- Tin cans
- Aluminium foil
- Paper
- Cardboard
- PET plastics
- Glass
- Textiles
In addition, there are dedicated collection bins, shops and charities which are very pleased to clean, re-sell, re-use and recycle such household waste as:
- Old pairs of shoes
- Books
- Ornaments and crockery
- Clothing
- Bedding
- Curtains
Re-Use It!
For products that cannot be recycled (such as thin plastics), try to find another use for it. For instance, if you are a gardener, you could use the plastic containers which supermarket fruit and tomatoes are sold in, in which to plant out seeds.
Another idea would be to collect a number of interesting objects and take them in to a primary school or nursery. They are always happy to receive clean, empty boxes, tubes, and containers which the children can use to make exciting creative works of art.
One Man’s Household Waste Is Another Man’s Treasure
Have you ever dumped perfectly good toys which your children have grown out of? Or perhaps you have thrown away an electrical item because you have replaced it with a newer, shinier model? Each year, our landfill sites are filled with such items.
There are many charitable schemes which volunteer to take toys to children who don’t have any and would be glad of them – or which will strip, re-sell or re-use electrical goods. In fact for almost any item which is still in relatively good working order, some charity will be able to take off your hands. So don’t dump it, share it!
Green Household Waste
Green waste – or any vegetation that you are throwing away, such as vegetables, peelings, fruit cores, vegetable left-over’s, old flowers, garden clippings and so on, can be recycled by putting on a compost heap.
Just make a small inconspicuous place in the garden, or buy a compost bin from the council or your local hardware store and pile up your remains there. Not only are you doing the environment some good, but you will be doing your garden, and the organisms that live in it, the world of good too, as it will provide food for birds and insects before rotting down to form a wonderful, rich soil which you can use.
If you don’t have a garden, or don’t have the space to do this, then once again, you may find your local council operates a ‘green waste’ collection scheme, or failing that, the municipal recycling centre will have a special area for such waste.
Do Your Bit – Recycle!
So, go on – don’t put it off – sort yourself out and get sorting your household waste!
I always welcome efforts to recycle for a better environment and want to congratulate you on your continuous efforts. As a suggestion to even further reduce your carbon footprints you should maybe consider to recycle all organic waste materials that you companies produce with the help of earthworms or compost worms. Worm composting is cheap, an easy process, doesn’t produce any bad odors and brings many benefits. Amongst them are the reduction of the production of methane gas which contributes to climate change. The worms are living in worm bins and convert organic waste products into nutrient rich natural fertilizers and pesticides with a great retail value. If applied properly you might be able to recycle up to 50% of your waste with the help of earthworms.