Watch Your Waste
Give Rubbish A New Lease of Life!

In the Derbyshire Dales we produce around 32,500 tonnes of household waste a year! Most of this waste goes to landfill (big holes in the ground) but landfill space is running out.

“Watch your Waste”
By following the simple hints and tips given here you could reduce what goes into your bin by over 60%! So Slim your Bin, Watch your Waste and follow the 3R’s.

What are the 3 R’s?
Reduce: Changing how we buy and use things so that we waste less. This is the best way to ‘watch your waste’ as it means you don’t have any to start with.
Re-use: Finding another use for the things you have in your house, using items again or repairing things so they are not thrown away.
Recycle: Taking items away for processing into new products.

But Why?
By watching our waste we can:

• Save natural resources
• Protect our local area, habitats and environment
• Save energy
• Reduce the need for landfill space or incineration and disposal costs
• Generate jobs in new businesses and involve communities
• Reduce litter

An Average Household Waste Bin Contains:

43%Compostables
3% Textiles
10% Plastic
24% Paper and Card or Paper Based Drinks Cartons
8% Glass
5% Cans
7% Other

Below are simple ways to reduce, re-use and recycle each kind of material so that you can really “Watch your Waste” and make a difference.

Good luck.

In February 2006 schools in the Derbyshire Dales District Council area were invitied to enter a competition to design a magnet on the theme of "Watch Your Waste" and "Reduce, Re-use, Recycle". To view some of the entries follow this link: Watch Your Waste School Magnet Competition Entries.

Compostables

So what are compostables?
This is the biggest portion of the average household bin. Compostables are things that naturally rot down and decompose such as garden waste, fruit and vegetables but also includes things like paper and cardboard in small quantities.

Reduce

• Only prepare as much food as you need for meals so there is less waste. Use leftovers in another meal or freeze them.
• Store your food carefully to prevent it going off.
• If you have too much of your own produce freeze or bottle it so it is not wasted.

Re-use

• Use garden prunings of twigs, leaves and branches to make a wildlife pile in a quiet corner of your garden for bugs, frogs, newts, toads and hedgehogs.
• Compost at home this is an east way to transform garden and kitchen waste into a healthy soil improver for your plants and shrubs (it saves you money too!)

To get the best out of your compost:

Put these in	Keep these out
vegetable peelings, fruit waste, teabags, plant prunings, grass cuttings, cardboard scrunched up, screwed up paper	cooked vegetables, meat, dairy products, diseased plants, dog poo, cat litter, nappies, perennial weeds, glass, cans, plastic

Compost bins are available at a discount rate to all Derbyshire residents from as little as £17. Up to 2 bins are available per household and the price includes home delivery. To order your bin call 0845 077 0757. Or follow this link to see images of the home compost bins, pick up composting tips and download an order form. Composting at Home.


To get your compost working really well try to get an even balance between nitrogen rich ‘greens’ (vegetable peelings, grass cuttings, tea bags) and mix in with slower to rot, carbon rich ‘browns’ (cardboard egg boxes, scrunched up paper, autumn leaves etc.)


If you want to re-use your cooked food (including meat and fish) you will need an enclosed composting system such as a Wormery, Bokashi system or green cone. For more information visit Rootrainers or Green Cone

Recycle

Derbyshire Dales District Council collects waste for composting from properties across the district in 240 litre grey wheeled bins with a green lid. Householders who are unable to have wheeled bins could compost at home or use the local Household Waste and Recycling Centre at Ashbourne for their garden waste. For details of what can and can't go in the Derbyshire Dales garden waste bin please follow the link to Household Waste or see below.

What can and can't go in your Green Bin.

Green Bin - Yes Please

Green Bin - No Thanks

Cardboard: Cardboard of any type including cereal and food boxes. Please flatten cardboard boxes and remove staples and any packaging tape. Please do not include cartons with plastic, wax or foil coatings such as orange juice cartons. Kitchen Waste: Vegetable peelings, fruit peel and cores, cooked or uncooked meat, fish and bones, tea bags, coffee grounds, any other food scraps (cooked or uncooked). All kitchen waste can be wrapped in newspaper or put into an uncoated cardboard box and placed in your Garden Bin. The paper or cardboard will be composted with the garden and kitchen waste. Garden Waste: Garden plants and weeds, hedge trimmings, small branches and bark, leaves and grass cuttings, house plants and compost, bedding from vegetarian pets (e.g. rabbits, guinea pigs). Loose material only, please. No plastic of any kind. Keep lid closed.

Soil, rubble, stones, plastic sacks/bags of any kind, household rubbish and other recyclables (glass, cans, plastic bottles etc.), plant pots, nappies, ash, cat and dog faeces, cartons with plastic, wax or foil coatings. It is your responsibility to ensure that your Green Bin does not contain any of the above. If any of the above items are in your Green Bin, it will not be emptied.

Textiles

Reduce

• Try to buy quality, durable products that will last.

Re-use

• Try on line auctions or a car boot sale to make some money out of those unwanted items. Or donate them to a charity shop.

Recycle

• Take unwanted clothes, shoes, curtains and bedding to the textile banks across the district. Make sure items are posted into the bank and not left on the ground to make a mess.
• Did you know that your plastic bottles might be recycled into fleece jumpers? Look for recycled fabrics when shopping.
• For your nearest textile bank follow the link to Recycling Centres

Plastics and other Packaging

Reduce – Shop Smart!

• When shopping try to choose products with less packaging.
• Every year, an estimated 17½ billion plastic bags are given away by supermarkets. When you go shopping take a re-useable cloth bag or use the supermarket ‘bag for life’ schemes and SNUB (Say no to unwanted bags)
• Support your local milk round. The returnable glass bottles will produce much less waste than plastic bottles or waxed cartons.
• Try to buy fruit and vegetable products loose or in a paper bag. If the shop you use only has plastic bags ask them to swap.
• Choose products made of recycled materials. Easy options include recycled toilet paper, kitchen roll and recycled glass containers.
• Avoid single use disposable products such as plastic cups and plates, cameras and nappies (more information later).
• Buy local food from local shops! Your local butchers, stalls and shops tend to use less packaging on their products. This way you are also reducing pollution by reducing the miles that food has traveled to get to you.

Re-use

• Use yogurt pots and margarine tubs as seed pots and paint pots.
• Use ice cream or margarine tubs to keep packed lunches fresh or to store leftovers (this also reduces the amount of cling film or foil you use!)
• Cut a plastic bottle in half and place the top half over young seedlings as a mini protective plant cloche.
  

Recycle

Plastic is quite difficult to recycle as there are so many different kinds. Look on the plastic container for a recycling triangle which has either the numbers 1-5 inside or the abbreviations PET, PETE, HDPE, PVC, LDPE, PP. Any of these are acceptable at Derbyshire Dales District Council’s plastic banks. This includes bottles from drinks, detergents and milk as well as margarine and ice-cream tubs and most yoghurt pots (generally 'hard' plastic packaging). Please do not include plastic bags, mixed plastic and foam packaging or cling film wrap (generally 'flimsy' plastic packaging). Please make sure you rinse the containers, remove lids and squash them if possible to save space. It takes the weight of an elephant to crush a plastic bottle with the cap on! For your nearest plastic recycling bank follow the link to Recycling Centres.

Paper and Card

Reduce

• Reduce your ‘junk mail’, sign up to the free Mailing Preference Service at MPS, Freepost 29 LON20771, London, W1E 0ZT, telephone 0845 703 4599 or sign up online at www.mpsonline.org.uk.
• If you have a home computer, view things on screen instead of printing out. If you do print, set your printer to double sided and buy recycled paper.

Re-use

• Make sure you always use both sides of any paper and make scrap paper pads from spare pieces for family notes and shopping lists.
• Make or buy re-use labels to get more from your envelopes.
• Donate magazines to hospitals, doctors or dentist surgeries.
• Some screwed up or shredded paper and card can be composted.

Recycle

• Every tonne of paper recycled saves 15 trees. In Derbyshire Dales a Blue Box for glass and a clear bag for paper is provided for a fortnightly recycling collection. Simply put your paper in the bag and put it out at the edge of your property with your blue box by 7.00am on your collection day. If you do not have a blue box or bag call the Environment Hotline on 01629 761215 or email environmenthotline@derbyshiredales.gov.uk.

What to put into your paper recycling bag.

Paper Bag - Yes Please	Paper Bag - No Thanks
Newspapers, magazines, postal advertising, white envelopes, telephone directories (including yellow pages)	Cardboard, brown paper, plastic wrapping, brown envelopes

• Or recycle your paper at one of the sites around the district. All of the paper banks in the district will accept Yellow Pages and telephone directories for recycling. To find your nearest paper recycling bank follow the link to Recycling Centres.
• Remember you can recycle cardboard in your Green Bin.

Carton recycling


You can now recycle your paper-based drinks and liquid food cartons, such as those made by Tetra Pak, at various points within the District. Carton collection banks can be found at:

Ashbourne, Shawcroft Car Park
Ashbourne, Sainsbury's Car Park
Bakewell, Granby Road Car Park
Baslow, Nether End Car Park
Darley Dale, Spar Car Park
Eyam, Hawkhill Road Car Park
Hathersage, Oddfellows Road
Matlock, Sainsburys
Tideswell, Community Centre
Wirksworth, Canterbury Road

Each year, UK beverage carton manufacturers produce 55,000 tonnes of paper-based cartons for milk, juice, sauces and other liquid food/drinks. This equates to around 2.3kg of cartons per household which could be recycled instead of thrown in the rubbish bin.

In response, Derbyshire Dales District Council is working with Tetra Pak and the carton industry body ACE UK (Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment) to establish carton collection points at key recycling points for residents to take their empty cartons to be recycled.

Once collected, the cartons can be taken away to be baled, transported to a recycling mill. They can be recycled into a number of different products, ranging from plasterboard liner to high-strength paper bags and envelopes.

For more information, click here to visit http://www.tetrapakrecycling.co.uk/.

Glass

Almost 200 glass jars and bottles are thrown away in Britain every second.

Re-use

• Use your glass containers again for home-made pickles, jams and drinks.
• Use glass paints to decorate your glass jars as tea light candle lanterns.
• Glass jars are ideal for storing nails, screws, paints and odds and ends.

Recycle

• Use your Blue Box to recycle your glass (see ‘Paper’ for collection details). Remove lids, drain bottles, and rinse jars at the end of your washing up, or
• Use one of the many glass banks around the District. If you are at the glass bank and are unsure of the colour please put it in the ‘green’ bank. To find your nearest glass recycling bank follow the link to Recycling Centres.

What to put in your Blue Box or Glass Bank for recycling.

Glass - Yes Please	Glass - No Thanks
Green, brown, clear and blue glass bottles and jars (please remove caps, tops, lids and corks)	Milk bottles, glasses, crockery, window glass, ovenware, saucepans, light bulbs or tubes.

Cans and Foil

Reduce