January is often a time for change, many of us begin our New Years Resolutions, whether this is a new diet, a new hobby, or trying to improve on something. Usually, these New Years Resolutions are broken before the end of January, and old habits return. The best way to make sure the new practices stick, is to put a plan in place to help achieve it. If you plan to better your recycling strategies or handle your waste in a more efficient way, these few handy tips will help you along the way.
Have a bin in each room
Household waste is produced in every room of the home, from the kitchen to the bathroom, as such every room should have a waste bin. This will help ensure that all waste types are collected, and have a far better chance of being managed correctly. As an example having a waste bin in the bathroom will increase the chance of items such as wet wipes being disposed of into the general waste, rather than being placed down the toilet – where they cause issues in the waterways.
Have an internal recycling box
Any item that can be recycled should be recycled – however with the ease of just placing recycling into the communal waste bin, instead of taking it to recycling bins (usually outside) – many waste items miss the opportunity to be recycled. By adding an extra bin inside your home, that is just for recyclable waste, will increase the likelihood of the items actually making it into the correct recycling bins, whilst also freeing up room in your general waste bin.
Shop smart
A main cause of waste is excessive purchasing or buying items that are difficult to recycle. Choosing the most sustainable option when selecting items from the shop, will mean choosing options that can be recycled. Check your packaging or the 2nd life options of the products you are wanting to buy, and make sure you are selecting the most sustainable option.
When it comes to over-purchasing, putting simple plans in place like creating and sticking to shopping lists, taking excess food to food banks, and unwanted items to charity shops or donation banks, all help to reduce levels of household waste.
Research Recycling
The best way to improve your waste management techniques is to recycle more. However, recycling segregation is vitally important, and waste musty be correctly separated to avoid cross-contamination. If recycling is mixed up, or an unrecyclable item is included, the entire batch becomes contaminated.
Checking your waste, and ensuring it is placed into the correct bin or waste receptacle is a key step to good waste management, and helps achieve higher recycling levels. If ever you are unsure, and cannot find out by researching whether something is accepted in the recycling, always play it safe and place it in the general waste bin, to help prevent contamination.
By taking these small steps, and implementing them into your lifestyle, you can improve on your waste management and better your recycling.
