Recycling Cans

Eco Fact: Every day 80 million food and drink cans end up in landfill

Recycle your food cans and you will be doing your bit to help stop them going to landfill. Rinse cans at the end of your washing up and recycle. Aluminium cans are the most cost-effective materials to recycle, so don’t waste them! Recycled aluminium from cans is used extensively to make new products.

Steel cans are also valuable and well worth recycling. They are easily separated from the aluminium with magnets at the Materials Reclamation Facility. On average, every single person in Britain uses 240 steel cans each year.

Read It, Swap It!

Bought a book and finished it? Don't know what to do with it? If you've read it swap it!

We have just come across this site www.readitswapit.co.uk which provides an eco way to get rid of unwanted books - recycle them by swapping books on-line. It is a free service with over 170,000 books available for swapping.

The swap process works in the same way that you'd normally swap something. You find something you like, you ask to swap, another ReadItSwapIt member chooses something of yours and you exchange the goods.

For more information go to the ReadItSwapIt website.

Why Recycle Plastics?

Plastic bottles are made from oil which is a fossil fuel that will one day run out. In Britain alone we throw away about 9 billion bottles every year! Many of which currently end up in landfill.

Almost all plastic bottles are made from 1 of 3 types of plastic:
1. PET e.g. fizzy drink bottles, cordial bottles, cooking oil bottles
2. HDPE e.g. milk & fruit juice bottles, washing up bottles, fabric conditioner bottles
3. PVC e.g. still mineral bottles, bottles for toiletries, cordial bottles

PET bottles can be recycled to make a variety of end products, including

• fleece clothing
• sleeping bags
• anoraks
• new packaging
• industrial strapping
• wall and floor coverings

ECO FACT: It takes 25 x 2 litre plastic bottles to make 1 adult-size fleece jacket

HDPE bottles can be recycled to make a variety of end products, including:

• fences
• park benches
• sign posts
• It can also be put back into bottles to be recycled again and again.

PVC bottles can be recycled and used to make a variety of end products, including

• drainage pipes
• electrical fittings
• clothing

ECO FACT: Recycling 1 plastic bottle saves enough energy to run a 60-watt light bulb for 6 hours

Recycling bottles does make a difference – plastic bottle recycling cuts down on waste and saves energy.

The UK now has over 4,900 plastic bottle banks and over 5.4 million households can have their plastic bottles collected as part of a kerbside collection scheme.

Recycle Your Wellies!

A bit of fun for a Friday afternoon - I thought this photo was great!

REUSE

• cut-down wellies to use as slip-ons
• plant things in them!

RECYCLE

• Donate to charity shops (in pairs!)
• Sadly Dunlop has stopped its Welly Recycling Campaign

Please let us know if you have any other tips for recycling your wellies!

source: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by Nicky Scott