Posted under Other news
It’s Recycle Week in the UK and it’s a great time to revisit ways to help the environment and put a bit less strain on it by reducing, reusing and recycling. I wanted to share with you some of the things that I’ve been doing and plan to do this week, and some tips and ideas to help you cut down on waste.
I’ve been recycling batteries at my local Tesco; there are so many more places where you can do this now and it’s only a five minute walk for me to drop them off! The other thing I could do is cut down on the amount of batteries I use in the first place, I am thinking about buying a battery recharger and rechargeable batteries to reduce my impact on the environment.
I’m going to make a final decision about whether to get a wormery or a composter this week and buy one. My local council subsidises both so it’s really a question of whether I can face up to wriggly worms or whether it’s better to have a composter, even though my garden is very small. The council used to pick up my food waste from my previous address, but sadly does not provide this service where I live now.
I am going to recycle some clothes (too knackered for the charity shop) and a broken electric kettle. RecycleNow has a great list of retailers who will recycle old small electrical appliances but none of them are near me so I will be making a trip to my local recycling centre.
I recently recycled two mobile phones and was paid £45 for them – it’s so worthwhile. Mobile phones that go into landfill are toxic and are also a waste of the expensive hi-tech components that are used to make them. Recycle yours, donate them to charity or get money for them – it’s a really good idea! There are plenty of sites out there which will help you get your old mobile phones recycled, try this tool from Money Saving Expert to compare them.
I’m also using a Kindle to read books. This is great for the book club I attend as I don’t have to run around book stores looking for books at the last minute, I’m finding it hard to kick my newspaper habit though, even if I can read a newspaper online it doesn’t feel quite the same. If I do buy a paper, I recycle it (of course!) but cutting down on my newspaper and magazine purchasing is going to be hard. I’m also going to donate some books to a local charity to clear some space.
I’m also looking into ways my company can help out. I’ve been looking at ways of reusing materials when creating products and am about to launch a new line of children’s clothing, made with talented childrenswear designer Sally Hemphill (who I met on the school run!) which uses recycled fabrics (offcuts from interior design projects which would otherwise have gone to landfill). The clothes are hand made in the UK by Heba Women’s Project, a unique training & enterprise project based in Brick Lane providing women from diverse cultural backgrounds with a safe and welcoming place in which to make new friends, learn new skills and engage in enterprise activities to suit their particular needs and family commitments. Heba’s a fantastic place which has helped many women with their sewing, English and IT courses, work spaces for designers and creche, so I’m proud to be working with them.
Mimimyne uses recycled printing paper, envelopes and reuses packaging, so that’s taken care of: in fact I do almost everything electronically and don’t generate much paper. I also recycle all my print cartridges by donating them to charity or getting them refilled. I am interested in finding out more about green packaging however, a designer I met recently at Pulse uses biodegradable plastic to package her products and I think there is more that I could do in terms of sourcing green packaging materials. I currently use recycled paper bags and Mimimyne recyclable and reusable Smartbags for selling goods at shows but am going to research things like bubble wrap to see if there are greener alternatives I could be using.
There is lots more information about how you can help the environment during Recycle Week at their website Recycle Now. You can also use the widget below to find out more tips about recycling in your area!
