How to achieve your waste pledges...
Use the orange sack or orange banks to recycle all my paper and card, tins and cans, aerosols, glass bottles and jars and plastic bottles.
Why pledge?
By recycling you can save energy and take action against climate change. Recycle Western Riverside's 'Get plugged into recycling' campaign's energy saving facts shows just how much you could be saving:
- recycling an aluminium can uses only 5 per cent of the energy it takes to make it from scratch, and produces 95 per cent less CO2
- recycling one tonne of paper saves 30,000 litres of water, 3000-4000 KWh of electricity and 95 per cent of air pollution
- recycling steel saves 80 per cent of the CO2 emissions produced, 40 per cent of the water used and 75 per cent of the energy used when making steel from iron ore
- recycling two glass bottles saves enough energy to make five cups of tea
- recycling a single plastic bottle saves enough energy to light a 60W light bulb for up to 6 hours
By recycling you can also:
- preserve natural resources
- prevent rubbish ending up in landfill
Top tips
 If you live in a street level property you can recycle using the orange sack service. For information on how to participate call 020 8871 7497, email recycling@wandsworth.gov.uk or visit our recycling pages
If you live in a flat you can recycle using the orange bank service. To find out about recycling facilities for a council managed block or estate please email hms@wandsworth.gov.uk or phone:
central area team 8871 7086/8768,
eastern area team 8871 7432,
southern area team 8871 7482, or
western area team 8871 5530.
Free recycling banks are also available to all private and tenant managed blocks, for the use of residents only. For more information call 020 8871 8558 or email recycling@wandsworth.gov.uk.
Visit the Recycle Western Riverside's 'Get plugged into recycling' campaign for information about how recycling can tackle climate change at www.westernriverside.org.uk.
Drink tap water rather than bottled water
Why pledge?
Drinking tap water instead of bottled water can save you money as well as the environment. Bottled water is just as expensive as petrol. If you buy one bottle of water a day you could be spending more than £350 unnecessarily each year and the production, transportation and disposal of the plastic bottles have serious environmental costs.
Top tips
- Don't buy bottled water from shops, and when eating out at restaurants, ask for tap water.
- Use a reusable bottle to carry tap water with you.
- Avoid drinking water from water cooler systems.
- Fill up a reusable bottle four times a day to get your recommended two litres of water.
- Take your reusable bottle with you on the underground, to work or to the park, so you always have a fresh supply of tap water to drink.
- To keep your tap water chlorine-free, let it stand for 20 minutes to let the gas evaporate naturally.
- Keep a jug of tap water in the fridge at home and at work so you always have a cool supply of water.
- Clean your reusable bottle regularly in hot soapy water to keep it sterile and hygienic.
- To keep your tap water fresh, store it covered in the fridge and drink within 24 hours.
- Reuse glass bottles where you can - they make great water canisters for the fridge.
- Keep your reusable bottle or a glass on your desk to remind you to drink more tap water.
- Spread the word and get your family and friends involved.
- If you have a water cooler at work or school take your own cup rather than using disposable cups. You could also encourage your work to install a filter tap instead of having large bottles of water delivered.
For more information visit the Recycle Western Riverside's 'Test the water 'campaign at www.westernriverside.org.
Reduce the amount of junk mail I receive
Why pledge?
Each week the average household receives 18 pieces of junk mail, that's almost 1,000 pieces a year! Sadly most of this ends up in landfill.
Top tips
Sign up to the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) to remove your name from up to 95 per cent of direct mailing lists. Simply complete an MPS registration form. Visit www.mpsonline.org.uk or call 0845 703 4599 to register.
Reduce the amount of unaddressed mail you receive, email your name and address to optout@royalmail.com. You will be sent a form to sign and return. Royal Mail will then stop delivering unaddressed items to your address within six weeks.
Put a 'no junk mail' sticker on your letterbox to stop up to 90 per cent of unwanted flyers and leaflets.
Write 'return to sender' or 'not at this address' to unaddressed or wrongly addressed junk mail and post back.
Tick the opt-out box on your electoral registration form when you register to vote to prevent your details being used for marketing purposes. Make sure you also choose not to receive unwanted mail when you sign up to any new product or service. Write to, or phone, organisations that you receive unwanted mail from and ask to be removed from their databases.
For more information visit the Recycle Western Riverside's 'no junk mail' campaign at www.westernriverside.org.
Find a new home for unwanted household items
Why pledge?
One person's trash is another person's treasure. Instead of throwing your unwanted items away, why not find a new home for them. Not only does this save useable items such as furniture and electrical appliances from ending up in landfill you could also be helping others by donating to a charity.
Top tips
Donate it to charity
Charity shops accept reusable items such as clothes, books, CDs, records, shoes, games and bric-a-brac. Find your local charity shop at www.charityshops.org.uk
Reusable furniture and electrical appliances can be collected for free by the British Heart Foundation. Call 0844 412 5000 or visit www.bhf.org.uk for more information.
Donate unwanted magazines to waiting rooms
When you have finished reading your magazines, why not drop them in to your local doctor's or dentist's surgery for their waiting room? This means that new magazines don't have to be bought. You can also leave behind your daily newspapers in coffee shops and cafe's; this is a good way of letting your reading material get re-used by (possibly many) others before it then gets recycled.
Mobile phones, inkjet cartridges and toner cartridges can be recycled to raise money for Oxfam.
If you're donating fewer than 10 mobile phones, simply send them in a jiffy bag to:
Oxfam Bring Bring Scheme
Freepost LON16281
London
WC1N 3BR
To donate inkjet or toner cartridges call Oxfam's recycling partner LaserXchange on 01873 859901 to request Oxfam freepost bags, collection boxes or to arrange a courier collection. For more information visit www.oxfam.co.uk.
You can recycle your old pair of glasses at thousands of optician's practices throughout the UK, and at every Vision Express to help Vision Aid overseas.
Send your used stamps to the Royal National Institute of the Blind:
RNIB Stamp Recycling
PO Box 185
Benfleet
SS7 9BH
Unwanted or old bikes can be taken to the youth offending team bike recycling project every Thursday between 5pm and 8pm at the Training Centre, Alma Road, SW18 (close to Wandsworth Town Station). The bikes are refurbished and given to victims of crime. Contact Paul Howard on 020 8672 7074.
www.donateapc.org.uk is a 'match making' website for individuals or businesses wanting to donate their old computer to a charity, not-for-profit organisation or educational establishment.
If you are a local business why not donate any unwanted or surplus re-usable materials to Wandsworth Work and Play - Wandsworth's community scrap store. Your donated materials are made available to members as an educational and environmentally friendly resource. To find out more call (020) 8682 4216 or email workandplay@msn.com
Swap or give it away online
Find a new home for just about anything! Whatever your unwanted item is someone else is bound to have a use for it, check out these exchange websites:
Swapping in the local community
Hold a clothes-swapping party for your friends and neighbours! Clothes-swap parties are an environmentally friendly way to get new clothes without spending a penny. You could also swap books and CDs.
If you are a member of a community group you could organise a give and take day. Give and take days offer a chance to get rid of household items you don't need any more and to pick up something you do need. A toolkit has been produced by the Women's Environmental Network, Forest Recycling Project and Global Action Plan and contains everything you need to know. To download a copy of the toolkit visit www.wen.org.uk/waste/Reports/GorT_Toolkit.pdf.
Use a home composter for my garden and kitchen waste
Why pledge?
Composting your kitchen and garden waste at home could cut down your rubbish by around a third. If you have a garden you can make natural soil improver and compost from dead leaves, plant trimmings, grass cuttings, vegetable peelings, tea bags and dead bunches of flowers. Even if you don't have a garden, you can compost some waste from your kitchen at home using a wormery.
Top tips
Go to our Home Composting page for more information. Order a home composter online at www.wandsworth.getcomposting.com or call 0845 130 6090.
- Site your bin on a level, well-drained spot. Placing it in a sunny place will speed up the composting process. You can compost vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, garden prunings, grass cuttings, egg shells, cardboard and paper. You can even tip the contents of your hoover bag into a composter. You should never add meat, cooked vegetables, dairy products, dog mess, cat litter or nappies to your compost.
- Good compost needs the right mix of ingredients. This means equal amounts of GREENS ('wet' materials that are high in nitrogen, like fresh grass cuttings, tea bags and vegetable peelings) and BROWNS ('dry' materials that are high in carbon, like cardboard, newspaper and dried flowers).
- Composting works best if you add a lot of materials at once. Chop large items into small pieces and try to ensure your compost is moist but not wet. Add water if it is too dry, cover and add dry material if it is too wet.
- It will take at least six months to produce finished compost. It will form a dark brown, almost black, earthy substance that is full of nourishment for your garden. Spreading compost onto your flowerbeds improves soil quality by helping to retain moisture and suppressing weeds.
Anyone can compost even if you don't have a garden. An indoor composter or wormery can work just as well.
Encourage my school or work place to set up a recycling scheme
Why pledge?
Are you a committed recycler at home and hate having to throw your waste in the bin when at school or work because there are no facilities available? Change this by encouraging or taking charge of setting up a recycling scheme at school or work.
Top tips
Getting a recycling scheme set up in your school is easy, we can provide orange recycling banks and reusable bags to schools. Visit our schools recycling page for more information.
You can also help increase the impact of the green pledge by encouraging your classmate to sign up. We can provide you with green pledge forms, contact greenpledge@wandsworth.gov.uk
There are lots of companies who will collect recycling from businesses. Visit our business recycling page for more information. |
