At Home

When you're at home why not try some of these easy practical tips to reduce, reuse and recycle you're rubbish. You never know, these tips might save you time and money!

• Reduce food waste through using up leftovers, cooking the perfect portions and making the most out of food. Wasting food costs the average family with children £680 a year and has serious environmental implications too.
• Use jars to store food instead of recycling them.
• Reuse magarine and ice cream tubs as food storage containers for freezers.
• Avoid disposabes and use reuables such as batteries whenever possible.
• Say 'NO' to junk mail. To remove your name from the mailing list write to :
  Mailing Preference Service
  Freepost 22
  London
  W1E 7EX or use the link at the bottom of this page to print out a postcard which has been pre-addressed.
• Cancel delivery of unwanted 'free' newspapers.

• Use reusable nappies rather than disposables. Disposable nappies make up 4% of all household rubbish in the Borough. This amounts to some eight million nappies or 1,800 tonnes, which are disposed of each year, at a cost to council tax payers of more than £118,000. For more information follow this link.
• Repair your broken electrical items rather than buying new equipment or recycling it at Stafferton Way, Civic Amenity Site.
• With the digital switchover around the corner, look to buy a digibox for your television rather than buying a new one and having to dispose of it.
• Take unwanted clothes, shoes, toys and household goods to charity shops or jumble sales.
• Rather than taking all unwanted items to the tip after clearing out the loft or garage, why not sell them on local reuse network websites such as Freegle, FreeUseIt, The Furntiture Reuse Network or even eBay.
• Pass on unwanted household items such as rolls of wallpaper to playgroups and schools for use in craft activities.
• Reuse old envelopes.
• Milk bottles can be reused as many as 30 times before having to be recycled, so why not get your milk delivered.
• If you are replacing old furniture which is still in relatively good condition someone else may still be able to use it. Both the Slough Furniture Project ( 01753 692535 ) and Thames Valley Hospice Mart ( 01753866303 ) collect and repair items for resale to those that are less 'well off'.

• Use the household recycling collection scheme and earn points when recycling all glass bottles and jars, paper, cardboard, tins, cans, aerosols and plastic bottles.
• Take old clothes and textiles to a charity shop or to one of the banks at recycling sites. Maybe your local school can earn money from recycled textiles.

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