Category: Waste & Recycling

We all know recycling is good for the environment – at least compared with sending household waste to the landfill site – but some people take it a step beyond altruism and recycle as a way of making money too.

There’s nothing wrong with recycling for profit, as you still achieve all the same benefits for the environment, and might even be able to do more to keep your neighbourhood clean when there’s some money in it for you.

Here are five of the main types of recyclable waste that can be turned into a profit – or at least, into money that you would not have if you simply threw them away.

Continue reading How to make money from recycling

Glass recycling has been one of the most familiar forms of recycling for decades, and many of us cannot remember a time when there weren’t green, brown and white bottle banks in supermarket car parks and other public places.

But the problem has always been getting to those public bottle banks when you have large amounts of glass to recycle, not to mention when you have anything other than a green, brown or clear bottle to recycle.

Here are our five top tips for recycling glass at home, which can help you improve your commitment to the environment with some simple everyday lifestyle changes.

Continue reading The ins and outs of glass recycling

Recycling metal is an important way to protect the remaining stocks of ore, notably chalcopyrite, which accounts for about half of the world’s total production of copper; metal is in principle a non-renewable resource, but by recycling it using modern techniques, there is no reason why we should ever run out.

Continue reading Copper recycling: things you need to know

Recycling at home is a great way to be kinder to the environment – a close second to simply cutting down on the amount of waste your household produces, which of course we can all do to a limited extent.

In fact these days there is very little that cannot be recycled at all, and these are our five top tips to improve your recycling at home, even if you think you already do pretty well.

Continue reading Five ways to improve your recycling at home

World Environment Day 2017 takes place on Monday, June 5th, and the fact that it falls on a weekday means that households and businesses alike can get involved in recognising the event and taking action to protect the environment in response to it.

This year’s WED has an overall theme of Connecting People to Nature, and although it follows hot on the heels of the two bank holiday weekends in May, it could be a good opportunity to take a day’s annual leave and spend some time outside instead.

Here are a few ways you can mark World Environment Day 2017 this June 5th, whether you are at work or at home.

Continue reading Gearing up for World Environment Day

We could all stand to make our food go further, whether as an attempt to make better use of our household budgets, reduce food waste, or just keep the bins emptier between collection dates.

But what are the tricks of the trade when it comes to sustainable food consumption – and how can they help you to cut your food waste?

Continue reading Sustainable Food: a few tricks of the trade

Nobody in the food service industry wants to see edible food go to waste – especially if you pay by weight for your bins or skips to be emptied – but how do you prevent customers from leaving unwanted remnants on their plates?

Here are ten ways to tackle the issue head-on, some of which are relatively innovative, while others are simple common sense.

1. Portion Control

The most obvious way to avoid food waste is to keep portions under better control. That doesn’t mean skimping on the quantities you serve, but if customers rarely finish their food, you may be serving too much.

Continue reading How to reduce restaurant food waste

DVDs and CDs take up much less space than old VHS tapes and audio cassettes – especially when stored without a protective jewel case – but with 2017 marking both the 35th anniversary of the creation of compact discs, and the 20th anniversary of DVDs reaching American markets (followed a year later by Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia), it’s no surprise that many of us have mounting numbers of unwanted discs to deal with.

The formats have been largely superseded by high-density formats like Blu-ray, which itself marked its tenth anniversary in 2016, but also by the use of cloud storage and portable storage on devices like smartphones.

So how can you dispose of CDs and DVDs in an eco-friendly way? The analogue formats that preceded them – such as VHS tapes – are now rarely recycled, and unfortunately optical media is going the same way.

Continue reading How to recycle DVDs and CDs

A fast-thinking farmer made headlines after using his tractor and trailer to block the exit of a white van caught red-handed fly tipping on his land.

The incident near Selby, just south of York, made local and national headlines as the farmer was praised for taking steps to prevent the culprit from leaving after dumping a load of rubbish in his field.

Continue reading Farmer blocks fly tipper

A morning coffee is an essential part of the wake-up routine for many people, and the proliferation of high-quality takeaway coffee houses in towns and city centres nationwide has meant that it’s easier than ever to get that cuppa – albeit a paper one – during your commute, rather than having to contend with pods and filter papers at home within moments of opening your eyes.

Continue reading Can you recycle your coffee cup?