Reducing and reusing your waste

Reducing your waste

Here are some ways to reduce the amount of waste you produce:

• when shopping choose products with least packaging
• buy fruits and vegetables loose to avoid the unnecessary trays and wraps
• for items with a long shelf-life or for things you use often, buy the large or economy size: even when the overall weight is the same, one large pack usually uses less packaging than two smaller packs
• use a reusable shopping bag or rucksack rather than plastic carrier bags and say "no thanks" to carrier bags that you don't need
• store food in sealable containers rather than using cling film or foil
• use re-usable nappies rather than disposable ones
• use rechargeable batteries rather than disposable ones
• compost your garden waste at home. Find out about buying a home composting bin at a discount price
• set your printer to print both sides of a sheet of paper and photocopiers to copy documents double-sided

Reducing your Food Waste

For practical advice on how to reduce food waste, and save up to £50 per month on your food bill, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website.

Make a pledge to Love Food Hate Waste on the Oxfordshire Waste Partnership website and they will send you a free leftovers recipe book with over 150 great recipes.

Cancel Junk Mail and Telephone Directories

• cancel junk mail - you can do this by registering on the following websites. They will arrange for your details to be taken off the mailing lists of companies sending unsolicited mail:
  - Mailing Preference Service
  - Royal Mail Door-to-door Opt-out Service
  - Your Choice Preference Service.
  Or you can register for all three at the same time as well as opting out of receiving phone directories on the Junk Buster website. You can also buy 'No Junk Mail' stickers on the Stop Junk Mail website.
• cancel your telephone directory home delivery, and look online instead.
  - Yellow Pages - call 0800 671 444.
  - Thomsons Local Directory email info@thomsonlocal.com with your phone number, name and address. They require people to re-cancel each year.
  - BT phonebook - call 0800 833 400.

Reusing your waste

Here are some ways in which you can reuse items rather than sending them to landfill:

• re-use carrier bags when you go shopping
• save packaging materials for sending parcels
• use empty jars and bottles for storage
• repair clothes rather than throwing them away
• use both sides of paper for notes, shopping lists or for children's drawings
• reuse envelopes by using sticky labels and re-addressing
• pass on any used magazines to friends, hospitals or doctors' surgeries
• donate old clothes, mobile phones and good quality bric-a-brac to charity
• donate unwanted furniture to charity
• pass on left over paint to Orinoco, an Oxford-based charity, who will then pass it on to community projects and members of the public to use.

Use Oxford Freegle - you might not need your old sofa or wheelbarrow any more but there might be someone just round the corner who does. Don't throw it away - give it away. Freegle groups make this happen online. Sign up, post an offer of something you want to get rid of, or a wanted for something you need. Visit the Oxford Freegle website.

Nappie

In Oxfordshire 100,000 disposable nappies are binned everyday which is 4% of all household rubbish.

By using real nappies you could save as much as £600 for your first baby and even more for your second.

Real nappies come with a disposable liner so are easy to use and wash. You can wash them yourself or there are laundering services available.

If you live in Oxfordshire and would like to give cloth nappies a try, but are unsure about paying out for a full set, you can borrow a trial kit completely free of charge and with no obligation to buy. For more information visit the Oxfordshire County Council website.

 Oxfordshire Real Nappies Leaflet (2.3MB PDF)

For more detailed information and advice please see the contacts below:

Page last reviewed 11 August 2011