Paper recycling has become a big part of Christmas, whether you take your old Christmas cards to a supermarket collection point or just try to crush everything into your domestic recycling bin for kerbside collection.
Continue reading How to enjoy recycled packaging and wrapping paper this Christmas
Christmas and New Year’s Eve can be a lot of fun, whether you go to an organised fireworks display or set some off in your garden at home, but there are some fireworks safety top tips to keep in mind, including some that apply especially if you’re making use of skip hire services in December.
Continue reading Firework safety for Christmas and New Year’s Eve
Clutter can consume your daily life, and decluttering can often feel overwhelming — whether the junk’s in one room or has taken over your entire house.
However, you’re not alone — 90% of the UK public has clutter in their home, and reducing it is more critical than ever.
Clutter impacts your physical space but can also affect your mental health. A shocking 47.2% of people reported feeling stressed and swamped by a disordered property.
Likewise, jumble leads to conflict between household members in 80% of the country’s houses.
It can be tempting to delay decluttering, but this can lead to further problems like the misplacement of essential things like keys.
Let’s dive into four vital decluttering tips to get you started on the road to an organised, junk-free home.
Homeowners everywhere dream of stamping their personality on their home, and while kitchen renovations can be ambitious, they can also have the biggest effect, and it doesn’t have to cost the earth to get the job done.
These are just some of the ways you can complete kitchen renovations on a budget, without compromising too much on the finished product – and how you can even save money over the long term.
Continue reading Kitchen renovations: tips for a more economical cooking space
Restaurant food recycling helps businesses in the foodservice industry to manage their waste more carefully – and crucially means that organic waste that could still be used does not get sent to rot in a landfill site.
A general restaurant food recycling scheme might mean small food caddies around the kitchen for vegetable peelings and so on, a large bin lined with a biodegradable bag to empty them into, another one for leftovers from the dining room, and a hygienic lidded skip outside for the full bags to go into for collection.
Eliminating unwanted draughts from your home could save you anywhere from £25 to £50 a year, depending on who you ask – and as draught proofing the home can be done on the cheap, it’s easy to come out in profit even within the space of a single windy winter.
The autumn months have an undeniable effect on our gardens – not all trees lose their leaves of course, but those that do end the summer season in a blaze of glory before covering the grass with a crispy or mulchy mass that needs quick attention to avoid it getting trodden into the lawn.
Dead growth from the summer bedding plants and some larger shrubs need attention too, and even a small garden can quickly produce more rubbish than a garden waste wheelie bin can handle, making a garden skip a worthy seasonal investment to get the job done while the last of the fair weather holds.
Continue reading Garden waste: prepping the garden for autumn
The WEEE Directive governs the disposal of electrical goods – its shorter name is much more fun, but to give it its full title, it’s the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive 2012/19/EU and it originally set a target for EU member states to recycle 2% of electrical waste by 2016.
Continue reading Recycling electrical items: what you need to know
There’s no better time to give to your local food bank than in the run-up to Christmas and the winter months, when a fresh, hot meal can make even more difference to families on low or no incomes.
Having food inside you on a cold day provides natural warmth, so it’s not just about feeding people; it also helps keep their heating bills down and gives them the strength to combat seasonal colds and flu.
Continue reading How to find and give to your local food bank
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.
