Flatten cardboard boxes.
Did you know the UK uses around 300,000 tonnes of card packaging and material during the festive period – enough to cover Big Ben 260,000 times?
Flatten thin cardboard boxes like cereal and tissue boxes before putting them in your recycling. If you are not going to re-use them, large boxes should be cut up into smaller pieces or carefully folded to fit inside your bin. Be careful not to get cardboard wedged in your recycling bin as that may mean it will not be able to be emptied properly and the collection crews are not allowed to pull it out.
Wash and squash your plastic bottles and crush tins and cans.
This means you can add more into your bin as less space is taken up by air. If you put a pop bottle in your bin that has not been flattened and has its lid on, that is one big pocket of air wasting space in your bin.
If you have lots of cans, especially drinks cans, in your waste you might find you can save a load of space by crushing these. Either use a can crusher or make sure you are wearing heavy-duty / sturdy shoes, so you do not get hurt and crush them under foot. Be careful, once crushed your cans might be quite sharp.
Keep glass in your recycling bin or box
Did you know that every tonne of glass recycled into new bottles and jars saves the equivalent carbon dioxide to charging 74,000 smart phones? So don’t forget to recycle them over the Christmas period.
Please make sure any glass bottles and jars go in your recycling bin or box and not your general household bin.
You can always check your Council’s website to see if they accept any extra recycling or for further advice on what to do with recycling. Also, to see what you can and cannot put in your recycling bins or boxes.
Household Waste Recycling Centres
You can always take any extra recycling you have to the HWRCs.
Alistair Beattie is the Community Education Liaison Officer based at the award-winning BDR Waste Treatment Facility at Manvers, which diverts 97 per cent of Barnsley, Doncaster, and Rotherham household waste from landfill.
“Lots of extra waste goes into people’s recycling bins over the holiday period with some householders running out of space,” said Alistair. “By taking just a few simple actions, such as folding cardboard or squashing cans and plastic bottles you can make a big difference to the amount of waste saved for recycling.”