There are many good reasons to reduce the amount of rubbish you throw out, most importantly being the environmental factor. With tons of waste being thrown in landfills each year, it’s important to do all we can to reduce our individual contribution.
At SkipIt, we like to think we know a thing or two about responsible waste collection. Our skip hire, wait and load and house clearance services are all provided with impeccable environmental credentials. But there is so much more we can be doing on a daily basis to promote responsible waste collection too. So here are some of our best tips to reduce your landfill load.
1. Use reusable bags
Since the introduction of the 5p plastic bag charge in 2015, the UK has reduced the amount of plastic bags used by around 80 per cent. While that’s certainly an impressive figure, we’re pretty sure that the country can do better.
If you buy a set of reusable bags, there’s a good chance you’ll save money in the long term compared to the amount of disposable ones you’d otherwise buy. Try putting them in the boot of your car or next to your front door so you’ll never forget them when you go shopping.
2. Buy groceries in bulk
Whilst we’re talking about grocery shopping, try doing yourself and the environment a favour by doing it less often. Buying your shopping in bulk generally results in less overall waste – a plastic wrapper with ten potatoes in is much better than two each with five.
3. Get reusable containers
If you’re one for the quick dash to the coffee shop on your way to work, or the supermarket meal deal at lunch – this tip can certainly help you out. A one-time purchase of a reusable flask will save on all those cardboard coffee cups, whether you make your own drinks at home or buy them on the go. Many coffee shops will even give you a small discount if you bring your own containers.
Similarly, preparing your lunch in advance at home will save you money on your lunch and will save wasteful plastic packaging being picked up by waste collection services and heading straight for the landfill.
4. Learn the recycling rules to reduce waste collection
Recycling can often be quite tricky to get your head around. Whilst most products tell you whether they’re packaging is recyclable, it is usually quite time consuming and inconvenient to search for this before throwing everything into the rubbish.
Luckily the more you do this, the better you’ll get at understanding what can and can’t be recycled. If you learn some quick rules of thumb for recycling then you’ll hopefully get quicker at this.
5. Have a recycling competition
If you want to make recycling fun around the home or office, try having a recycling competition with the people around you. Have a race to see who can get the least amount of waste into the landfill, or the most into the recycling. Loser buys dinner at the weekend – just make sure it doesn’t have disposable packaging!
6. Use responsible waste collection professionals
Some waste is a little more complicated to get rid of than others. If you’re looking to hire a skip, rip-out you’re existing furniture and replace it, or house clearance services, then you should only trust your waste to those with a proven track record of doing some good with it. And since over 90 per cent of the waste we handle is diverted from landfill – we’d like to think that we’re somewhere on that list.
