Own your impact this festive season
It’s easier than you think to do your bit for the planet this Christmas. Simply recycling more of the right things will make a huge difference to the environment and is cheaper for your local council to process than rubbish is.
One of the easiest things to do is avoid buying greeting cards with batteries and glitter and steer clear of wrapping paper with glitter or a lining made of foil or plastic. To stay in Green Santa’s good books this year, you can also:
- Recycle all your cardboard food packaging.
- Empty, rinse and dry all plastic food and drink packaging before it goes in your recycling bin – and place all items loose (not bagged).
- Recycle cardboard delivery and toy boxes and fold them down to make more room in your recycling bin.
- Place all paper cards, envelopes and wrapping (that are glitter, foil and plastic free) in your recycling bin. Keep bows and ribbons and reuse them on other gifts!
- Place unrecyclable items such as hard plastic storage boxes, polystyrene, bubble wrap, and flexible plastic film in your rubbish bin. If in doubt, look up items on the Surrey Recycles search tool or download the free app where you’ll also see information about local recycling schemes for some of the above items that you can’t recycle at home.
- Plan food shops and party food in advance and freeze any cooked or uncooked food you didn’t get around to eating. Have you ever tried a food shopping app?
- Get creative with your leftovers, try some of our delicious recipes.
- Put food that can’t be eaten, like bones, eggshells and peelings into your food caddy.
- Remember that if your gifts replace old items like clothes and small electricals and batteries, they need to be recycled separately, not placed in your recycling bin – in most areas they are collected weekly. Find out what you need to do in your area with the Surrey Recycles search tool or download the free app.
- Look for places where you can recycle your Christmas tree, or replant and reuse next year. If you subscribe to your garden waste collection service, you can cut up your tree and place in the garden waste bin.
Find out more: https://www.surreyep.org.uk/prefestive-and-festive
