Have a green Christmas!
Tis the season to recycle - so make sure you do your bit over Christmas and New Year.
The average household is awash with packaging, paper, cards, food, bottles and more. It is much better to recycle it all than throw it out for landfill.
Ipswich Borough Council’s recycling team have come up with 12 tips for Christmas. They told angle that three million tonnes of rubbish will be created across the country over the festive period and that more than half of this can be recycled.
Tip 1: use your blue bin for all your paper, cardboard, cans and plastic bottles and tubs (no glass please).
Tip 2: Put all your vegetable peelings in your brown bin or, better still, in a home composter. It’s great for your garden. Call 0845 077 0759 to buy one at a great price.
Tip 3: Such lovely presents but so much cardboard - put it all in your blue bin.
Tip 4: Buy rechargeable batteries for your children’s toys. Household waste and recycling centres have battery banks for your used batteries.
Tip 5: Take all your empty bottles and jars to your local glass recycling bank. To find out where, call 01473 432099 or log on to www.ipswich.gov.uk/services/recycle
Tip 6: Make a New Year’s resolution to recycle more.
Tip 7: To make room for all those new toys take the old ones along to your local charity shop.
Tip 8: Your new party gear is great but your wardrobe is bursting! Take any unwanted clothes to the charity shop or textiles bank.
Tip 9: CDs, books and shoes can be recycled at most supermarket sites. Fill up your car when you go shopping and you won’t have to make an extra trip.
Tip 10: Put real Christmas trees next to your brown bin - they can be recycled, too.
Tip 11: Britons send more than one billion Christmas cards. Put your cards in your blue bin.
Tip 12: Think your way to a green Christmas: don’t just cram all the festive packaging into a bin liner. Separating items for recycling will take only a few minutes.
No plastic bags, please!
Ipswich Borough Council is also asking residents not to pick up lots of plastic carrier bags when they do their Christmas shopping. Councillor Inga Lockington, Environment portfolio-holder, joined staff on the Cornhill for the latest Choose 2 Re-use campaign day. “Ipswich residents are doing a good job recycling but we can all do better. If we think about how much rubbish we create it will help us to realise that recycling is the only answer. For instance, across the UK we produce enough rubbish every two hours to fill the Albert Hall. That is why the Council takes recycling so seriously. I hope you all have a pleasant and a green Christmas,” she said.