I Still Have Waste

Zero waste is difficult especially if you have a busy life. The next best thing to reducing waste is to deal with your waste correctly. Hopefully you won't have all of these things!

These things shouldn't be sent to landfill.

Check your Council website for a list of items that can be recycled with a kerbside collection

Terracycle offer collection points for items that are not collected kerbside for example pet food pouches

Recycle Now find out what recycling is in your local area. Search for information on how to deal with specific items.

Love Food Hate Waste

A-Z of food storage, leftover recipes, portion planning

Aluminium Cans

Council recycling

Batteries

Batteries especially lithium when punctured can explode and cause fires. Most supermarkets have battery collection points.

Books

As well as selling books or giving to a charity books in good condition can be donated to a library.

Coffee Filters

Hopefully, if you use them, you are buying unbleached. A coffee filter can be put over the drainage hole in planting pots and containers. They can also be composted.

Electronics/Phones

These contain valuable metals so even if they are no longer serviceable find an e-waste. If you are upgrading there are many online companies which offer money for your old technology. There are also places you can donate laptops and tablets to be refurbished for example during the pandemic companies provided children with technology to access their online lessons.

One thing I found out when my son gave me his old Macbook is that you can upgrade even when the 'computer says no'. After the automatic updates stopped I was able to take the old operating system off completely and install the latest version. So I have a MacBook from 2017 which ran High Sierra which I replaced with Catalina and which now upgrades itself and is running Big Sur (2021)

Fabric - clothes, off cuts of material

A lot of fabrics take hundreds of years to decompose they shouldn't be in landfill.

Sell online.

Donate to a charity.

Find a textile recycling bin.

Furniture

Local charities may pick up larger items of furniture for free. Post an advert on a recycling network such as freecycle.org or in your local newsagent or online through a marketplace. Repurpose old furniture or upcycle into something completely different.

Glass

Many Councils have kerbside collection for glass. Supermarkets and Council car parks often have recycling bins for glass.

Lightbulbs

Some supermarkets have dedicated bins for light bulbs.

Medicine

Return to a pharmacy rather than flushing down the toilet or sending to landfill.

Metal

Local council recycling centres will have a section for waste metal such as storage tins and baking trays.

Plastic bags - single use and bag for life

Supermarkets often have collecting points and charity shops are often grateful for bags.

Plastic bottles

Most Councils are able to take these in recycling bags. There may be a plastic bank at your supermarket.

Toys

Toys are really hard to recycle as they are often made up from a combination or plastic, metal, wood and fabric. Try to donate to local schools, playgroups or to a charity shop. Unfortunately unless you can separate the different materials once they have broken a lot of toys will end up in landfill. When buying new toys think about how it will be disposed of at the end of its life.