You’ve got to the bottom of a pot of jam, marmalade, mayonnaise, or olives. Now what do you do with the jar? In our house we often reuse our glass jars for other food storage: wholesale nuts and seeds, the remains of a tin of baked beans, or some leftovers from dinner. However, what if you don’t need another glass jar? What if your kitchen cupboards are full? We’ve listed 25 ideas below of ways to utilise your empty jar. Which will you try?
Fill your glass jar with some fresh water and fill it with fresh flowers from your garden to create a lovely, free vase.
Make a batch of jam, marmalade, lemon curd or chutney and gift it in your jar. Jazz the jar up with a label and some pretty ribbon. Your recipient will love it!
You might be surprised to learn that the bathroom produces a lot of waste, but it really does: shampoo bottles, conditioner bottles, shower gel bottles, hand-wash bottles, soap packaging, disposable razors, facial wipes, bathroom cleaner bottles, toilet roll inner tubes… you get the idea. In fact, most of our bathroom waste can be recycled, but research suggests most of us don’t even think about recycling when it comes to the bathroom. However, why not go one better than that and cut down on the waste so it doesn’t exist in the first place? The planet will thank you! It’s just about breaking habits.
We have collected some handy hints together for creating a low waste or zero waste bathroom. Even if you make one change towards zero waste, it is better than nothing. What will you try changing? Continue reading Top tips for a zero waste bathroom
It’s a little known fact that us Brits wear just 70 per cent of the clothes that we have stored away in our wardrobes, which leaves us with a total of 1.7 billion unused items. On average, a consumer keeps their garments for three years, but even more shocking than this is the fact that something might be frequently worn in the first year, and then phased into the stockpile of unworn clothes later on. That is why the average British closet is so overstuffed: we don’t wear all of the clothes we own.
The spending habits of the average person in the West have changed dramatically over the last hundred or so years when it comes to buying clothing. Between 2002 and 2003, for example, people in the US spent, on average, four per cent of their income on clothes, whereas back between the years of 1934 and 1946, clothing used up 12 per cent of people’s incomes. The current average expenditure per item in the USA is $14.60. Don’t go thinking that we are all consuming less though. On average, just one person in the UK will produce 70 Kg of textiles waste per year – that is a lot of clothing. Cheap, fast fashion means we are spending less yet buying more.
This competition has ended, and the winners were Angela Evans and Sophie Jayne. Thanks to all who entered.
Composting has great benefits for you and the Earth, including: dramatically cutting your household waste levels, lessening the amount of waste being sent to landfill, and creating a nourishing matter for your garden plants – saving you money, as you won’t need to buy any special products from the garden centre.
Here at Forge Recycling we are keen to encourage UK residents to get composting, and because of this we are giving away not just one but TWO compost bins for your garden. Two lucky winners will have a Blackwall 330 litre black compost converter delivered to their gardens, courtesy of Forge.
These bins are made from recycled plastic, and are guaranteed for 15 years, so you’ll have many years of composting ahead. Their dimensions are 100cm (H) x 80cm (W), and they require no assembly.
The prize: the Blackwall 330 litre black compost converter
If you are infuriated by the litter in your local area, you might like to organise a litter pick to clear the area of rubbish and return it to its natural state.
Organising a litter pick involves a little more planning than you might expect, but don’t worry — we have created this step-by-step guide for you.
Our guide includes everything you need to know to organise a successful litter pick involving five people or 500.
Choose a location
Choosing a spot won’t be hard; the reason you want to organise a litter pick is probably that you keep walking, cycling or driving past an area that is inundated with rubbish.
It could be a residential street, some woodland, a towpath, farmland, or a town centre.
Check to see if there is already a local group
LitterAction has a handy tool that lets you search for litter picking groups in your area. You could also have a search on Facebook.
If there is a group for the area you want to litter pick, get in touch with the group leader and see if they would be interested in litter picking in the specific location you have in mind.
Statistics tell us that adults in the UK are slowly but surely getting better at recycling – especially since the introduction of the fairly recent plastic bag charge, which has forced people to think about their actions – but what about our children? Waste and recycling is tackled by the National Curriculum in schools from Key Stage 1 now, but we all know that kids tend to learn some things better through example rather than simple spoken word. Meaning, if you don’t engage your child in recycling at home, they are less likely to be interested in it, or do it themselves when they are older.
So, how can you get your child into recycling at home? Follow our tips below.
Lead by example
Children love to pretend to be adults, so if your little one sees you reusing and recycling at home (and when you are out and about) they are far more likely to want to do the same, and learn more about what it is you are doing. Pique their interest early on, and normalise your actions.
Make recycling fun
Help your child to learn about recycling in a fun way by setting up a home recycling centre, with different boxes for each type of recyclable. This will be a great game for a small child. Label each box, and let your child explore the world of recycling through learning about the different types and choosing which box to place each item in. Why not make up a song about recycling which you can sing when you’re doing this? Continue reading How to get kids into recycling
Due to the devastating flooding that has blighted Leeds and other parts of the country, Forge Waste & Recycling has placed a large skip on the corner of Kirkstall and Haddon Road – just outside Café Enzo.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… in fact, many of us now have our Christmas trees up in our homes and workplaces. Each year, 6-8 million of us in the UK purchase a ‘real’ Christmas tree, as opposed to an artificial one. So, what do we do with these trees that we have brought into our homes, once Christmas is over? I often see them abandoned in public in January – fly tipped due to a lack of knowledge, or perhaps just pure laziness and apathy. Yet there are so many options for what you can do.
Here are some ideas for what to do with your Christmas tree after the festive period:
Use a rosemary bush instead
Image credit: Pixabay
Some people have started using festively pruned rosemary bushes instead of pine trees, as they are far more sustainable, and can be moved around in their pot without you having to chop them down like a traditional tree. But, if you still fancy a pine tree, read on for plenty of ideas… Continue reading How to Recycle your Christmas Tree
“We can hardly believe it ourselves, but it has been 5 years since we started collecting waste in Leeds”.
The early days
Forge Recycling was formed by brothers, Harvey & Fraser Mills. Harvey had a background of working in the waste industry, but was feeling quite uninspired by his employer’s national – rather than local – focus. Fraser had recently finished University and was looking for a new challenge.
The brothers decided to bring their knowledge and experience together, and so Forge was born. In the beginning they bought a second hand Iveco van and the two of them spent the summer clearing out student housing in Headingley.
One van quickly became three vans, plus a small team of employees. Then, with the help of Yorkshire Forward and European funding, the company purchased its first bin wagon. Continue reading Five Years of Forge Recycling
Research suggests that women are generally ‘greener’ than men. If we look at it at a base level, a French study shows that women emit 32.3 kilograms of carbon a day, compared to men emitting 39.3 kilograms. This difference is due to apparent gender variations in: green attitudes, purchase behaviour, susceptibility to green advertising, transport choices, food choices, and driving habits.
However, whilst women are ahead in many ways when it comes to being environmentally aware and friendly, the majority of people – women included – on our planet are not doing enough to stop, or even slow, the harm being done to the Earth.
This is a small guide for women on how to live in an environmentally friendly way, using ideas you might not have considered before. Most of these tips are relevant to men too, so why not have a read!
Cosmetics, Make-up & Toiletries
Image credit: Pixabay
Cosmetics and make-up, alongside toiletries such as shower gel, are often packaged in plastic. Most of these are recyclable, but here are some points to think about if you wish to cut your impact on the environment:
Could you purchase items in bulk, therefore using less packaging?
If you must use your usual brands and products, could you reuse that bottle or pot for something else?
If you really must dispose of your packaging, always recycle everything you can. Remember: a small plastic bottle can take 450-1000 years to degrade in landfill, and research suggests that is where most plastic bottles (around 90%) end up.
When it comes to items for removing make-up and cleaning your face, opt for reusables such as flannels and crochet pads, as opposed to disposable and unrecyclable facial wipes.
Nail polish is sold in glass bottles, with plastic lids. Perhaps you could use your empty bottle to create your own nail varnish colour.
Feminine hygiene products
It is no secret that women menstruate, and in doing so we get through a shocking amount of disposable sanitary towels and tampons during our time on Earth. These items are bad for our health; most aren’t made from cotton, and contain plastic chemicals, and those that are made from cotton have been bleached. Cotton crops are also often sprayed with a variety of chemicals, so even the cotton itself is not clean. Now think about where you wear these items! Tampons, too, carry a heightened risk of you developing TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome).
Not only are these sanitary items bad for your health, but they are bad for the environment too. The majority end up in landfill, and when you consider how many are used by every woman, that is a lot of waste to landfill. The average woman uses over 16,000 disposable sanitary items during her lifetime.
Clothes
Image credit: Pixabay
If you are needing some new clothes, it is so easy to buy clothes from shops which don’t consider the environment in their clothing production. This process involves energy consumption, the use of toxic chemicals, the use of land and natural resources, and the use of water.
Instead of buying new clothes from places that don’t consider the environment, you could:
Upcycle items you already own
Make your own clothes
Organise a clothes swap party, or attend one
Buy second hand, from a charity shop or similar
Buy new clothes from an eco-friendly shop, such as People Tree
Don’t forget to wash your clothes on as low a temperature as possible and hang your clothes up to dry rather than using a tumble dryer. Also consider which laundry detergent you use.
