National Recycling Week, established by Planet Ark in 1996, is held every year during the second week of November. Reducing our waste not only keeps valuable materials out of landfill, but it also benefits the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s the perfect time to check your recycling habits to ensure that the items you use aren’t just being sent to landfill but are given a new life. Here are some of our top tips to help you recycle better and help reduce the amount you send to landfill.

CHECK THE LABEL.

Food and drink containers now display whether they are wholly or partly recyclable or if they have different recycling requirements, taking the confusion out of which bin each piece of your packaging should go in. So check the side to see where it goes and recycle right every time!

DROP IT OFF.

Check with your local council and discover drop off locations where you can recycle tricky items like mobile phones or printer cartridges.

COMPOST.

Composting your food scraps can reduce the amount of materials in your rubbish bin by up to 40%. Plus it reduces landfill greenhouse gas emissions and produces nutrients for your garden.

CLEAN IT, SORT IT.

If a batch of plastic comes through for recycling and there are pieces of food mixed in with it, it can’t generally be recycled and must go to landfill.

So, keeping contamination out of your recycling is important. You can do your bit to reduce contamination by giving your plastic a quick rinse before it goes in the bin and by keeping food and ineligible materials out of the bin.

Likewise, keep recyclables out of bags. Otherwise they won’t be sorted correctly and will end up in landfill.

BUY BETTER.

Buy second hand. Buy in bulk. Buy products made of recycled materials.