We all create waste. Everything we throw away is made of something: trees, oils, metals… so wastes natural resources. Our waste also contributes to climate change through its transportation and the release of methane, a greenhouse gas, at landfill sites. It is important not only to recycle but to minimise the amount of waste generated in the first place.
Reduce your waste
Recycling can help save materials and energy. It's even better to reduce the amount of food and other things that are wasted in the first place.
The best way of doing this is simply using less. Try asking yourself if you need a product before buying it and taking your own bags when you go shopping.
Choose items that will last longer and try to buy products you can use again instead of disposable items.
For more tips, visit our reducing waste page.
Reuse & Repair your waste
Repairing or reusing items means that things will last longer and won’t need replacing with new items so quickly.
Even when you have finished with something, someone else will often be able to use it. Secondhand furniture, clothes and electrical items like mobiles are especially popular: why not pass them onto friends and family? You could also sell them, donate them to charity or pass them on via sharing schemes like Freecycle.
Recycle as much as you can
Paper, glass, plastic bottles, garden waste, fridges, shoes, batteries – all these and more can be recycled, helping to save energy and new materials.
An average family can double or even treble the amount they recycle.
Bradford Council offers a range of recycling and waste services across the district. To find out more visit our Recycling section.
Home compost your biodegradable waste
Composting is a great way of transforming your kitchen and garden waste into a useful resource for the garden. Composting is a natural process where kitchen and garden waste rots down to produce compost, which can be used with in your garden to improve the soil and add nutrients, to help plants and flowers grow.
For more advice visit Home Composting.
To help you get started discounted compost bins are available from Get Composting, prices start from £16.00
Love Food Hate Waste
8.3 million tonnes of food is thrown away by households in the UK every year.
Reducing food waste is a major issue, wasting food costs the average family with children £680 a year and has serious environmental implications.
If we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 4 cars off the road.
Love Food Hate Waste is the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ of the modern day, providing handy tips, advice and recipes for leftovers to help everyone waste less food.
