Have a waste free Christmas

With all the presents, parties and puddings over the Christmas period it can sometimes lead to a lot of leftovers, of the packaging and food kind. So we have got some handy and helpful tips on reducing, reusing and recycling this Christmas.

 

• Count down to Christmas by eating food from the freezer. It clears space for leftovers and makes use of what’s already there, saving money in the run up to the celebrations
• Leftover food is always around at Christmas, so check out the Love Food Hate Waste website for lots of festive treats made from leftovers. You can put anything you can’t use in the brown bin for food and garden waste.
• A whole range of jars – from cranberry sauce to baby food – can all be recycled: just give them a rinse in your leftover washing up water and recycle them at your local recycling site.
• If you’re having visitors to stay this Christmas, let them know where your recycling bin is and what goes in it. You can also get the kids involved in the household recycling routine while they’re on Christmas holidays
• Remember there are lots of unexpected Christmas items you can recycle like sweet tins, tin foil and aerosols.
• Don’t forget that you can recycle your Christmas cards when you take them down. You can put them in the recycle bin with your paper and card recycling.
• Wrapping paper can also be recycled in the blue bin, as long as its not the metallic or plastic kind

 

 

Real Christmas trees will be collected during January in some parts of Dorset or can be taken to a local household recycling centre to be composted.

Please remove all decorations from your tree before disposing of it. Fake or plastic Christmas trees will not be collected.

If you subscribe to the garden waste collection service, you can cut your real tree into small pieces and put it in your garden waste bin for your first collection in January.

Have a green Christmas – recycle more!

The festive season results in an estimated 3 million tonnes of waste in the UK  (Institute of engineering and technology, 2011).

Follow these simple tips to turn Christmas into a recycling opportunity and reduce the amount of waste your household produces:

• Send e-cards, or donate your card money to charity
• Turn this year’s Christmas cards into gift tags for next year
• Recycle any cards which can’t be reused in your kerbside recycling collection
• Use re-usable gift bags or boxes instead of wrapping paper
• Buy unpackaged fruit and vegetables
• Home compost your fruit and vegetable peelings
• The average grocery bill for Christmas is £169. Planning for Christmas helps everyone save time and money. Use the Love Food Hate Waste online portion planner whether you’re cooking for family or a party
• Use up leftovers and freeze food that can’t be eaten
• Recycle any unavoidable food waste using your food waste collection, if you have one
• Re-use plastic shopping carrier bags, or use reusable bags, to carry your Christmas shopping
• Buy a re-usable artificial tree or a potted real tree that can be planted in the garden or reused next year
• Get your Christmas tree collected for composting, if available in your area
• Send gift tokens to help reduce waste and allow recipients to choose their ideal gift
• Buy rechargeable batteries, and recycle used household batteries using your red bag at the kerbside or at your local Household Recycling Centre
• Recycle your old Christmas lights, or any other electrical or electronic items at your local household recycling centre

Find out more information about waste and recycling services over the Christmas and New Year period.

Christmas Recycling

    

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.

Festive facts…

 Did you know in the UK…?

• 500 tonnes of Christmas tree lights are discarded over Christmas – if they are in good working order why not donate them to charity instead?
• 13,350 tonnes of glass is thrown out at Christmas – from champagne and sherry bottles to mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars. Recycling all of them could save the 4,200 tonnes of CO2 equivalent being produced –that’s like taking around 1300 cars off the road!
• 4,500 tonnes of tin foil is thrown away over the festive period
• 250 tonnes of Christmas trees that could have been recycled are simply thrown out afterwards – Check here to see if your district or borough council is running a special Christmas tree kerbside collection or take it down to your nearest household recycling centre.

If you need to find out whether something can be recycled or not, check out the Recycle Now (opens in a new window) guide.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Put your bin on a festive diet

It’s the time of year for stocking up on your yuletide favourites but do you end up with lots of leftover turkey, mince pies and party snacks?

This Christmas, why not expand your wallet not your waste. The average UK family throws away around £50 worth of food a month – this rises to £680 a year for a families with children – imagine how you could spend this extra cash!

Making the most of your food and saving money during the festivities doesn’t mean cutting down on indulgence and fun. By planning meals in advance, checking the cupboards and fridge, knowing use by-dates and creating tasty leftovers, you can enjoy an extra bit of cash and make sure uneaten food doesn’t end up in the bin

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has these great tips to reduce food waste over the festive period:

• Keep tabs on the use-by dates of perishables and freeze anything you won’t eat in time
• If you make too much don’t throw it away, freeze it and eat on a cold January evening
• Stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and brandy butter can all be made ahead of time and frozen
• Make your own mince pies and freeze them uncooked – they’re a great standby snack
• Unsure how much to cook? Try Love Food Hate Waste’s perfect portion calculator (www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/perfect_portions) to find out how much you need to cook for Christmas dinner
• Love your leftovers – make a tasty turkey and chickpea curry with your leftovers. Find more festive leftover recipes at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
• Don’t forget Christmas cake, meat, potatoes, cheese and bread can be frozen

Why not try making Christmas pudding ice…A kind of cheats version of Rum and Raisin using leftover Christmas Pudding.

Ingredients: Serves 4

• 125g leftover Christmas pudding, crumbled.
• 150ml chilled ready made custard.
• 150ml double cream, whipped.
• liquor such as branch, rum, whisky or Baileys.

Instructions: Mix together the custard and whipped cream then stir in the crumbled Christmas pudding. Freeze in a large Tupperware and stir every half hour or so until it’s the consistency you want. For a softer freeze, add a little brandy or leftover Christmas liquor such as rum, whisky or Baileys

Have a home-made Christmas!

Save money, help the environment and have fun by planning a home-made Christmas this year. There are plenty of great ideas on how to make your own attractive and unique festive decorations from recycled papers and materials, which are available from a variety of arts and craft shops. Plus you can also make the most of any used patterned papers, catalogues or magazines you see.

These can be used year after year. But the good news is when they start to look tired or you decide it’s time for a change, old ones can easily be recycled and you can make colourful replacements.

Recycle Now (opens in new window) has lots of short videos providing fun and creative ideas for you to try. Check out the eco friendly gift wrapping and home-made decorations clips or send an E-card, choosing from one of 12 seasonal designs.

There is also an advent calendar (opens in new window) featuring a green tip for everyday leading up to Christmas. Today’s is – Ask the kids to get involved in the household recycling routine while they’re on Christmas holidays. They can find out lots about recycling by playing some cool games on Recycle Now.

Rocking around recycling

A festive fact…Christmas dinner alone will create a mountain of waste including peelings from 240 million sprouts, 105 million potatoes and 20 million carrots across the UK!

It’s the season to be jolly, so in the run up to Christmas our recycling officers will be attending various yuletide events across the county. Full of festive cheer, the team will be on-hand to chat to you about how you can keep you waste in shape this season.

Try our recycling tips:

• Keep your recycling box next to the bin and tell guests what can be recycled
• You could get your kids involved in the household recycling routine while they’re on Christmas holidays
• When you do your big Christmas shop, you could take any recycling that’s not collected from home with you
• Why not look out for items containing recycled material as gifts this Christmas? A growing range of clothes, furniture and even electrical goods containing some recycled material will make perfect ‘green’ gifts
• Avoid goods with unnecessary packaging or buy items packaged in recyclable materials
• Send e-cards or ones made from recycled paper
• Compost vegetable peelings
• Buy gift wrap made from recycled paper

We’ll be at the Dorchester Christmas Cracker event on 1 December from 6pm. Find out if we’re attending an event near you.