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Zero Waste Week 2014 – Plastic wrapping

Yesterday I shared my menu plan for zero waste week 2014. The next step is to check out what I can recycle locally, in particular plastic wrapping. Sadly there is a large list of the items I cannot put in our recycling bin:

NO THANKS! Things you CAN’T put in your green bin are:

Red cross - no, you shouldn't put shredded paper in the green bin plastic bags, cling film, junk mail bags, packets, yoghurt pots, food trays and tubs
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put envelopes in the green bin wrapping paper, greetings cards, shredded paper or envelopes
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put glass in the green bin glass
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put plastic tubs/pots in the green bin aluminium foil
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put plastic cartons in the green bin any other domestic rubbish
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put plastic bags in the green bin DIY waste
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put plastic bags in the green bin Tetrapaks
Red cross - no, you shouldn't put polystyrene paper in the green bin garden waste.

However I am delighted to discover a local charity The Matthew Project is raising funds through collecting plastic for recycling. Even more amazingly one of their collection points is all of 2 miles away. As our children are extremely fussy eaters who seem to live off yoghurts I am delighted to find a way of recycling yoghurt pots:)

Ellies Fund collect baby wipes, biscuit wrappers, and food pouches. Ellie’s Fund is a Brain Tumour Trust – supporting children & young people across Yorkshire & the Humber who have a brain tumour & raising money for brain tumour research, as well as raising brain tumour awareness.

Whilst researching this post I was excited to read that a new waste collection is starting on the 1st October for roadside collection of yoghurt pots, and plastic food trays. Here’s hoping my local council will soon introduce waste food collection too – keeping a pig is a step too far!

In the meantime envelopes have been added to the compost bin. Plus I have discovered my local supermarket collect recycling for a far wider range of item than I realised, in particular light bulbs and old CD’s – there’s a limit to how many CD coasters we can use!

DIY CD Coaster

Tomorrow I will be sharing a tutorial on how to make an upcycled plastic bag sandwich wrapper. I’ve had great fun having a go at fusing some of the wrappers from food this week.

Fancy joining in the conversation re zero waste week? Check out #zerowasteweek on twitter.

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Rachelle Strauss

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

What great research and it seems like some local charities can really benefit from your 'waste'. Do you use many tetra pak cartons? There might be something here for you: http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/locator.asp

Great news about the yogurt pots; I'm terribly envious of anyone who can recycle those locally!

Una

Wednesday 3rd of September 2014

It's about time your local council changed its recycling policy. Where I live, we can recycle everything on your list except for diy waste and general household waste. Garden waste can't go in the normal recycling bin, but there is a separate system for collecting that. My recycling bin is usually full and the other bin only needs to go out once a fortnight. My neighbouring council also collects food waste. If mine did the same, our normal bin could probably go out once every three weeks. I think the whole system is confusing and councils need to catch up with the wishes of the people who want to recycle.

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