Reduce, re-use and recycle this Christmas

We’d like to wish everyone in West London a Happy Christmas and a relaxing festive season.

How’s your bin looking? Is it a little round and stuffed full of things? We hope not as the Waste Elves are bin fans of 3 small bins this Christmas.

Here are a few quick tips to keep your bin looking slim!

Tip 1 – sorting wrappings is easy

Sort for re-use and recycling when you’ve finished unwrapping your presents. Give someone the task of sorting out what can be recycled and what has to be thrown away, challenge them to throw away as little as possible.

Make it really easy to sort out by using cardboard boxes or large plastic bags marked rubbish and recycling and put wrapping and packaging directly into these. Don’t put everything into bin bags without sorting it out as you’ll never go back and sort it

If you’re not sure if your wrapping paper can be recycled use the rip test – if it rips easily it’s paper but if you have problems tearing it up it can’t be recycled.

To find out what you can recycle visit the website for your local council – Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow or Richmond.

Tip 2 – Plan your portions

Before you start peeling and chopping work out how much you need to prepare. Find out how hungry your guests and family are, do they want a small portion or a big one? You could also use the Love Food Hate Waste online portion tool to see how many potatoes to peel or Brussels sprouts to cook. What you don’t prepare today you can eat over the next week.

Tip 3 – Let people serve themselves

Encourage everyone to have a second or third helping rather than pile their plates high and risk leaving leave lots on plates to be scraped in to the food waste bin. Letting people serve themselves will make it easier for you to put any uneaten food into plastic containers in the fridge for use in other meals. Anything covered in gravy or cut up and mixed with other things is harder to make in to something else.

Tip 4 – Get the extras in the fridge quickly after dinner

Put leftovers in to airtight containers in the fridge or wrap tightly in foil and cling film. Storing them in a fridge that is 5^oc or cooler will help keep them fresh for a couple of days.

Tip 5 – Check out the waste elves

If you want some more ideas to reduce waste this Christmas check out what the 12 days of waste free Christmas brought to you by the west London Waste Elves.