All the councils who make up the Dorset Waste Partnership have now said ‘yes’ to a new kerbside waste collection service for Dorset.

Weymouth and Portland was the seventh partner to sign up to the service, completing a full house of DWP members who’ve backed the move aimed at boosting recycling to 60 per cent and saving £2m. 

People in Christchurch and parts of East Dorset will be first to get the new service this autumn.  It will be introduced across Dorset (not including Bournemouth and Poole) by 2014/15.

The new service will consist of:

• A weekly food waste collection (using a kitchen caddy and larger, lockable container for outside)
• A fortnightly recycling collection (using a 240-litre wheelie bin, a box for glass and a small bag for batteries)
• A fortnightly rubbish collection (using a 140-litre wheelie bin)
• An optional, fortnightly garden waste collection for an annual charge of £25 for a bag or £35 for a wheelie bin

Before that, the DWP will be sending information to every household in the first area to get the service, giving details of how to apply for a non-standard service if you don’t have outside storage space, have a big family or would need help moving bins.

There will also be a series of road shows where people can see the new bins, ask questions and discuss their needs.

The DWP has prepared a list of frequently asked questions giving answers about the service and what it will mean for people in Dorset.

You can read the full press release here.

Use a fridge thermometer to make sure your fridge is at the right temperature

Storing food in the right way helps keep it fresh and tasty for longer. Here are some tips to help you keep food fresher in the fridge: 

• Remember to keep your fridge temperature below 5^oC. 
•  It’s best not to put bread in the fridge as it goes stale much quicker here.
• The fridge is the ideal place to store most of your fruit and veg. Exceptions are bananas, pineapples, potatoes and onions. 
• Fresh fruit and veg need to breathe in the fridge so don’t store them in completely sealed containers. Fruit and veg packaging has been designed to help it stay fresh for longer, so don’t take the packaging off until you’re ready to eat the food.
•  Once opened, food like cheese and ham keep better if they’re well wrapped by re-closing the pack, wrapping in cling film or foil, or putting it in an air tight container.
•   If you aren’t going to eat it, remember you can freeze food before the ‘use by’ date. Defrost when you need it and use within 24 hours.
• Wrap lettuce, carrots, courgettes etc. in kitchen paper then put them in plastic bags in the salad compartment of the fridge. They keep fresh for ages. The paper stops the condensation from softening the veg and stops mould.

 There are lots more fridge storage tips at: www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/storage_and_tools/tips/keep_your_cool

Over the 12 days of Christmas, you can limit the impact on your waste by following the Dorset Waste Partnership’s top tips:

• Avoid goods with unnecessary packaging.
• Buy food and drink packaged in recyclable materials.
•  Compost vegetable peelings and raw kitchen waste.
• Buy rechargeable batteries for electrical goods and toys.
• Remember to always shop with reusable shopping bags.
• Buy Christmas wrapping paper and cards made from recycled paper or try to buy gift paper that can be recycled – this should be plain with no glitter, holograms or foil.
• Buy gifts that are made from recycled materials – log onto http://www.recycle-more.co.uk/ or http://www.recycledproducts.org.uk/ for some gift ideas. Or alternatively buy an “experience” as a gift.
• Keep your recycling bin next to the rubbish bin and remember to tell your Christmas guests where it is and what can be recycled.
• Don’t forget you can freeze all sorts of food including bread, meat, ready meals and homemade leftovers and keep for later. For more helpful tips go www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
• Recycle your Christmas cards via your kerbside recycling service or support The Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme by taking them to your nearest Marks and Spencer store during January 2012. Nearly 10 million cards were collected last year, which equates to 200 tonnes.
     

For more information about kerbside collections over the festive period and household recycling centre locations and opening times visit www.dorsetforyou.com/christmasrecycling.

“We are so pleased that all our hard work is beginning to make a difference” said Victoria Humphrys, deputy head teacher.

For more information about free waste education visits from The Dorset Waste Partnership visit www.dorsetforyou.com/schoolsrecyclingeducation.

This was a joint campaign with other Dorset councils to encourage more aerosols recycling. It was designed to highlight that empty deodorant, hair spray, air freshener and furniture polish aerosols can all by recycled as part of your kerbside recycling collections. You can also take them to our mini can recycling banks, which are often located in supermarket car parks.

The Awards presentation recently took place in Christchurch, where the Director of British Aerosol Manufacturers’ Association (BAMA), Sue Rogers, presented local dignitaries with the covetable prize – a £1,200 changeable graphic advertising display system for a recycling vehicle. An engraved trophy and framed certificates were also presented.

• Hungry Hoarders (11% of theUK adult population) shop while hungry, resulting in impulse purchases. They often fail to plan ahead meaning their shop might not create complete meals.
• Ditsy Diarist (9% of the population) do not consult their little black books before their trip to the supermarket and as they eat out a lot or work late, much of what they buy sits unused in the fridge and is eventually thrown away.
• Food Phobics (25%) are ultra-conscious and throw away food on or before the best before date without first checking its condition.
• The Separate Shoppers are a generation of independent individuals who buy their own food without checking what their partner or housemate has already bought, often resulting in duplication.

However all is not lost, some people are a far more careful about food waste:

• Freezer Geezers – those who simply love their leftovers and use their freezers effectively to minimise food waste.
• Conscientious Consumers are a group who love to make meals out of leftovers. Freezer Geezers and Conscientious Consumers combined make up 44% of the population.

Here in the South West 65% of us are Freezer Geezers!

Despite tough economic times, WRAP research reveals that British shoppers are unnecessarily throwing away an incredible £12 billion worth of food a year. Read more here.

Also, if you made a lantern don’t forget that it can be composted.

He recently entertained a packed audience at the Dorchester Corn Exchange organised in aid of the Children’s Society. Cooking up a host of delicious and unique dishes like razor clams with chorizo and venison (or roe deer) curry, he also found time to visit our Love Food Hate Waste rescue recipes stand.

He said: “Love Food Hate Waste is a really effective campaign to help people throw less food away and save money.

“I’m always shocked at how much food is wasted and this must cost families a lot of money. The website is full of incredibly useful advice to help reduce food waste and it even has an impressive range of recipes to give people ideas for using up their leftovers.”

Find out more about Love Food Hate Waste.

You can also pick up tips on catering for frightfully good Halloween parties, which can help to save you money by ensuring you make the most of the food you buy.

So don’t be frightened to recycle this Halloween – here are our top tips:

• Going to a Halloween party? Why not get creative and make your own scary costume out of old clothes or visit the local charity shop and see what they’ve got on offer that you can use.
• Plus after the party, don’t forget to put your costume to the back of your wardrobe for next year.
• Are you hosting a party? Why not borrow or hire extra cutlery rather than using disposable ones, which will get thrown in the bin afterwards.
• If you are taking your children trick-or-treating, why not take a reusable bag or ice cream tub for collecting treats. And, don’t forget to put rechargeable batteries in your torch.
• Making a lantern? Remember to use all of your pumpkin – there’s lots of treats you can make with the flesh, so don’t waste it – see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com for recipe ideas.
• And after you’ve finished with your pumpkin, try composting it.

There is lots of nutrient-rich waste around – old bedding plants, grass cuttings, leaves and prunings – which can all be composted.

It’s important to have a good mixture of materials (you don’t want too much of any one thing) if you want to make a good quality compost. As well as green garden waste, you can compost fruit and vegetable peelings, egg shells, tea bags, pet hair, and even shredded paper.  Try to aim for a 50/50 mix of ‘greens’ (vegetable peelings, old flowers, grass cuttings, spent bedding plants) and ‘browns’ (garden prunings, coffee grounds, tissues and paper napkins, cardboard, etc). 

If you have too many leaves for your compost bin, just put the excess into a bin bag, make a few holes in it, and leave in a secluded spot to rot down. It will be a great soil conditioner in a few months.  Another good tip is to use your lawnmower to collect up leaves: this shreds the leaves and helps to speed the composting process.

If you get it right, this autumn’s compost will provide a free supply of nutritious soil conditioner that will enrich your spring planting next year.

Read about our compost bin offers here.