Halloween is just around the corner and with it comes all manner of traditions — from fancy dress parties to trick or treating, and everything in-between.
Unfortunately, these traditions are often fairly wasteful — however, it’s surprisingly simple to make them less so.
Below, we take a look at how you can make your Halloween celebrations more sustainable this year, and for future years too.
Continue reading How to plan a sustainable HalloweenSunny summer days are synonymous with splashing around in a cooling swimming pool and hanging out at the beach.
So, what do we take with us for these excursions? Towels, swimming costumes, sun lotion, and inflatables, of course.
This blog post takes a look at the recycling of inflatables.
Continue reading How to recycle summer’s pool inflatablesHundreds of news articles have been written over the past few years about the rise of plastic waste and with it, plastic litter.
While there’s no denying that plastic is everywhere nowadays, there is some confusion as to why plastic is so bad for our planet.
After all, it’s still mass-produced, and people are still regularly bringing it into their homes.
Plastic is everywhere you look in the home — whether it’s the handwash container and shampoo bottle in the bathroom, the toys in the lounge, or the utensils and food storage boxes in the kitchen.
There’s a difference between single-use plastic and plastic products that are created to be reused. However, there are risks associated with both.
This blog post takes a look at why plastic is such a problem for the environment.
Continue reading Why is plastic bad for the planet?In Leeds, the local council provides an excellent household recycling service and accepted items include paper, cardboard, cans, tins, and plastics 1, 2, 4 and 5.
However, several items in particular confuse a lot of householders. Can they be recycled or not?
We all live busy lives, and this can mean we don’t always check the numbers on plastic against the list provided by the local authority.
Some people may not stop to think about what to do with an item if it can’t be recycled kerbside, either.
This results in items ending up in the recycling bin when they shouldn’t, and items being sent to landfill when they could have been recycled.
Below are three things that can’t be recycled kerbside in Leeds.
Continue reading Three things that aren’t recycled kerbside in Leeds
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It is Zero Waste Week and, as usual, we have a giveaway in place to help you reduce your waste and live a more sustainable life.
Seeing as we now offer paper cup recycling as one of our services, this year our prizes are reusable coffee cups.
Using a reusable cup saves paper cup waste, is far more sustainable, and usually results in a discount for you when you visit your local coffee shop!
The benefits are numerous.
Continue reading Zero Waste Week giveawayWe are all very familiar with glass — it is a common material that is used to make a plethora of items inside and outside of our homes.
In fact, most of us probably take it for granted!
Have you ever stopped and wondered how glass is made and how it is recycled? This blog post takes a look at all things glass.
Continue reading What is glass?If you watched Chernobyl recently, then you may have had your first insight into the world of nuclear energy.
If you didn’t see Chernobyl, then it was an HBO mini-series based on the true story of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The accident took place on 26 April 1986, and you can watch the eye-opening trailer for the show below.
So, what is nuclear energy, how is nuclear waste produced, and how do we, as humans, safely deal with the waste?
Read on to learn more on this fascinating subject.
Continue reading Everything you need to know about nuclear wasteSingle-use coffee cups have featured in the news a lot over the past few years, primarily due to the fact that they are difficult to recycle and the UK gets through 2.5 billion of them per year.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall brought ‘disposable’ cups to the public eye on his War on Waste programme back in March 2016, and there’s been much public discussion ever since.
Coffee fans the country over have been caught up in the discussion over the takeaway cups used to house their beloved flat white or frothy cappuccino.
Continue reading How to avoid single-use coffee cupsWe may live in a digital age, but the Royal Mail is still busy delivering letters and parcels across the country.
Whether we like it or not (and it tends to be a ‘not’ if it’s a brown envelope), we all receive post in one form or another.
Many of us receive junk mail through our letterboxes, alongside official letters about tax, voting, bills, and more.
Some of us are lucky enough to receive handwritten notes from family, friends, and pen-pals, too.
This mail builds up to a significant amount of waste, so we’ll explain how best to dispose of it in this blog post.
Continue reading How to recycle your mailAt the end of the academic year, the majority of students move out of their student housing and head home, never to return to the same property again. Enter changeover day!
Recent surveys suggest that the 18-24 age group is more wasteful than others, and one can easily imagine so when you consider the lifestyle of the average student — regular takeaways from single-use containers, parties, etc.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to all younger people or students, or even the majority — but evidence suggests it does apply to some, and that is why we are writing this blog post.
Continue reading How students should deal with waste when moving out
