How to waste less this Christmas

Around 108 million rolls of wrapping paper were thrown out by Brits last Christmas, alongside 54 million plates of food and 189 million batteries. In fact, when surveyed on the matter, eight in 10 Brits admitted they don’t even try to justify the amount of waste they produce throughout the festive period — with six in 10 people saying they don’t even feel guilty about what they bin over Christmas.

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Disposable nappies or real nappies: which should you use?

If you are a parent of a baby or a soon-to-be parent of a baby, the subject of nappies is no doubt a common one in your household. After all, the average baby needs changing around 5,000 times in its lifetime. Sadly, if you choose to use disposable nappies, this translates into 12 wheelie bins’ worth of nappies per year per baby, and eight million nappies binned across the UK per day.

Some people have not heard of the alternative, and those who have may not know the facts. So, this blog post delves into the world of disposable nappies versus real nappies.

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Interesting facts you didn’t know about coffee

As we have recently started a new venture involving the recycling of disposable coffee cups, we have been very interested to learn more about the popular drink they contain. After all, the whole nation is hooked! We have collected together some of our favourite and most interesting coffee facts and figures below for your enjoyment.

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Colgate launches a toothbrush recycling service

Colgate UK has announced that it has partnered with TerraCycle and set up the Colgate Oral Care Recycling Programme.

This new recycling scheme allows customers to post their used toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, toothpaste caps, toothpaste packaging and electric toothbrush heads to TerraCycle for free, who will then recycle everything on behalf of Colgate. This scheme covers all brands of toothpaste and toothbrushes — not just Colgate.

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Can padded envelopes be recycled?

Most offices across the country have a stock of padded envelopes in their stationery cupboard, as do many homes. These envelopes are made from paper and plastic bubble wrap usually and are ideal for posting anything that needs a bit of extra protection as it makes its way through the postal system. As online shopping has increased in popularity, so has the use of these packages. However, once a padded envelope has been used, what happens to it? Can it be recycled?

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Carlsberg ditches its plastic can holders

Carlsberg, one of the world’s largest breweries, has unveiled plans to replace its plastic can holders with a glue that’s fully recyclable.

Plastic can holders — also known as plastic pack rings, hi-cones or yokes — have long been the focus of discontent, not just because of the material they are made from, but for the danger they pose to wildlife and marine life. In fact, as far back as the 1970s there were wildlife campaigners telling consumers to cut the plastic rings up with scissors before binning them to reduce the risk of harm to animals.

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How to use up leftover paint

You may have recently completed the redecoration of a room in your home, or you may have some leftover paint lurking in your garage or shed. Whatever the situation, don’t be tempted to throw the paint away — you may feel like you have no further use for it, but once you have read through our ideas below you won’t believe you were ever going to chuck it out!

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Why can’t all plastic be recycled?

Since 1988, it’s been easy to identify what type of plastic many products, packaging and containers are made from, thanks to the creation of the Resin Identification Code, or RIC.

This is the number enclosed within a triangle that appears on many plastic items as a guide to its recyclability – but although the symbol originally included the familiar ‘recycling symbol’ of three arrows arranged in a triangular shape, not all plastics marked in this way are actually recyclable.

More recently, it is common to see a solid triangle rather than the triangular ‘recycling’ arrows, in an attempt to reduce the risk of non-recyclable plastics being misinterpreted.

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Aldi boosts its recycling rate with plastic tray switch

Budget supermarket, Aldi, has boosted its recycling rate by switching some of its black plastic fruit and vegetable packaging out for clear plastic packaging, which is much more easily recycled.

The rest of Aldi’s black packaging will be phased out as part of the company’s commitment to making sure all of its packaging is recyclable, reusable or compostable by 2025. This simple change from black to clear plastic will divert 265 tonnes of plastic from landfill annually.

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Win a Zero Waste lunch kit!

Thank you to all who entered this competition. It has now ended and the winner is announced in the Rafflecopter widget below.

Welcome to Zero Waste Week – a week we love to get involved with and celebrate every September. We love the fact it is a whole week dedicated to not only reducing waste but trying to live in a way which eliminates it altogether, too.

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