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Kent residents currently produce more than 800,000 tonnes
of waste every year, which means the average household will produce
approximately 1.5 tonnes. We need to take responsibility for our
waste and REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE.
Make it your New Years resolution to recycle!
A massive 80% of our household waste could be recycled or
composted. Research shows that 41% of adults in the UK either don't
recycle or let their good efforts lapse over the festive season.
Don't let your bin struggle to contain the vast quantities of waste
we will produce this Christmas, make sure you put recyclable items
to one side in boxes or bags, then put out for your local kerbside
collection or take to your local recycling centre, so valuable
waste won't end up in the dustbin and eventually in landfill. Your
local
Household Waste Recycling Centre can accept glass bottles and
jars, paper and cardboard, cans, textiles and many more items for
recycling. Household Waste Recycling Centres are open Monday -
Saturday 0800 - 1630, Sunday & Bank Holidays 0900 - 1600. These
sites are closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. Find
out about your local recycling facilities at the
recycle
now website.
Tree - cycle
8 million real Christmas trees are sold each year. Real
Christmas trees can be taken to
Household Waste Recycling Centres where they will be composted
or check with your local council to see if they are
collecting. Better still, why not buy a tree with roots so you can
plant it in the garden or in a pot and use it again the following
year.
Whilst planting your new tree, start a
compost heap. All your fruit and vegetable peelings from
Christmas dinner can be composted along with other food scraps, tea
bags, eggs shells and garden waste to create a soil enhancer for
your garden.
Return to Sender
Cards can be recycled at
Household Waste Recycling Centres, collected from your Kerbside
or taken to Recycling Bring Banks (call your local
District Council for details). The
Woodland Trust will
be collecting Christmas cards at Tesco, WHSmith, Marks &
Spencer and TK Maxx stores from 2 January to 31 January 2008.
Or, you could cut down old greetings cards to make gift tags. Even
Envelopes can be used again.
Consider sending e-mails rather than cards and letters to save
paper.
You may find you receive a lot of Junk mail this Christmas, contact
the Mailing Preference
Service to remove your name from mailing lists. Mailing
Preference Service, Freepost 22, London W1E 7EX.
… In with the new
If you are having a clear-out remember to take unwanted items to
charity shops, have a jumble sale or join
freecycle.
If you receive any unwanted gifts support your local charity shop,
swap or sell.
Having a Party
Try to avoid disposable products. If you are having a party, use
reusable crockery, cutlery and glasses - you can hire them if you
don't want to risk breaking your own.
Between 20% - 30% more glass and cans are collected over the
Christmas period. Every tonne of glass we recycle saves 1.2 tonnes
of natural raw materials, which means less quarrying and less
damage to our countryside. So remember to setup a recycling area
for your guests.
Waste not, want not
We throw more food in the bin than packaging. Food wasted in the
UK increases by a massive 80% during the Christmas period, this is
a staggering 230,000 tonnes of festive food worth approximately
£275million.
19% of adults admit to buying too much food for their Christmas
day meal. Avoid unnecessary waste by making a list and planning
your shopping. Not only will this save time and money, but you will
not over purchase and buy perishable foods you will not have the
opportunity to use. View the
Love Food Hate
Waste campaign website for hints and tips on reducing food
waste in your home.
All the trimmings. .
Why not try rechargeable batteries, which can be used over and
over again, in all those toys, rather than disposables. Or better
still choose presents that don't require batteries.
Make your own decorations and crackers.
Head back to nature when you are decking the halls this Christmas
and use objects from the countryside to decorate your home; fallen
twigs, berries, moss, holly and of course ivy. Berries can be put
for the birds afterwards and that compost heap will be growing
again.
. . . ., but not all the unwrapping
SNUB - Say No to Unwanted Bags! Use crates or boxes to take your
shopping home or support 'Bag for Life' schemes at your
supermarket.
Avoid buying products which are over-packaged. Selection boxes in
particular use excess packaging. At Christmas time many items have
excess decorative packaging to make them more eye-catching and
attractive to the purchaser. Often these items will cost more and
leave you with even more unnecessary packaging. Look for items in
recycled packaging which can be recycled again, such as cardboard
etc. Avoid foil wrapping paper as this can not be recycled.
Buy your sprouts and satsumas loose and not pre-packaged
Save wrapping paper and gift bags for reuse
Complete the loop
Consider buying Christmas cards, gifts, tableware and
decorations made from recycled materials. There are great Christmas
gifts and accessories available view a selection at
Recycle now's shopping
area. The future of recycling ultimately depends on there being
a market for recycled materials.
Consider buying virtual gifts such as sponsoring an animal,
memberships or subscription. |