How to reduce your waste

Last updated: 24 November 2009

As the Davies family from Holywell found out when they lived in a green community for ten days, there are lots of ways you can reduce, reuse and recycle the waste that you produce. Here are a few top tips.

Recycling items such as glass, metal, plastics and paper where possible saves on the amount of raw material (and energy) that is needed to produce new items. Many local councils now have recycling initiatives in operation but if there's not one in your area, there are often containers for recycling in civic amenity sites (for example supermarket car parks) which often include, among other receptacles, clothing and textile containers.
Remember to recycle from all rooms in the house - it's easy to forget that your shampoo bottles can go green too.
Composting your own food waste at home reduces the amount of food going into landfill. Some local councils offer reduce-priced Home Compost bins and/or wormeries.
Recycling unwanted items at car boot sales, charity shops, and by using free recycling initiatives such as The Freecycle Network reduces the amount of items that we discard and that could end up end in landfill.
Cut back on carrier bags, and if you do use them make sure to reuse them when you next go to the supermarket. Better still, invest in jute or cloth shopping bags, or supermarket initiatives such as 'bags for life', to reduce the amount of single use carrier bags you consume.
Make do and mend; try to repair and reuse items rather than putting them straight in the bin.