
8 Ways to Reduce Household Waste
A third of all plastic litter found in the sea is make up of plastic bottles. Over 60% of packaging in household waste is from plastic bottles, this includes drinks bottles, milk bottles, household cleaning product bottle, edible oil bottles and toiletries bottles. (2017 RECOUP Household Collection Survey).
Our world’s resources are too valuable to be wasted. Let’s work together to help our planet by reducing our household waste
1. Become a considerate supermarket shopper
So much of our food is wrapped in packaging. Some we can’t avoid when there is no eco-alternative, however, we can all become more considerate of the environment by making smarter choices when it comes to our weekly supermarket shop.
As you pass by the fruit and veg section look for loose items. A lot is packaged, but if you look, there is also a fair selection that is loose. (Take your own fruit/veg bags with you as most supermarkets now don’t provide bags for loose fruit & veg!).
Then as you progress through to the chilled section, think about whether you need to buy the pre-packaged salad, or can you make it up yourself? Do you need to buy a packet sandwich, or packet chicken – can you cook some up and make your sandwiches at home? Although it’s undoubtedly more convenient to buy packaged food, we should not be prioritising convenience over the planet’s wellbeing.
2. Stop buying plastic water bottles
In the UK, 13 billion plastic bottles are used and only 7.5 billion are recycled. Of these 7.7 billion are plastic water bottles.
Our consumption of water in plastic bottles has doubled in the last 15 years. The average person in the UK uses 150 plastic water bottles per year.
Plastic water bottles can take 450 years to break down.
90% of the cost of producing a bottle of water goes in the making of the bottle.
80% of plastic bottles never get recycled.
(2017 RECOUP Household Collection Survey).
Reduce your consumption of water in plastic bottles today! Buy a refill bottle, buy water in large containers if you need to. Making this small change will help to reduce the impact plastic water bottles is having on our planet.
3. Begin Your Refill Shopping Journey
An old concept that has been revived, refill shopping requires us to make a small change to the way we buy our household products. It is really going to make a difference as more people adapt their shopping habits to taking a more eco-friendly approach.
At Top Up, our mission is to realise a world without wastage, where packaging is reused sustainably. We offer a range of eco-friendly, sustainable refill products.
Many of our SESI brand refill products are best-buy recommendations by Ethical Consumer Magazine (issue 191).
Our Best Buy SESI products are:
All Purpose Cleaner
Cream Cleaner
Toilet Cleaner
Laundry Liquid
Fabric Conditioner
Washing Up Liquid
Hand and Body Lotion
Castile Soap
Shower and Hand Soap
We have pop-up shops in and around Basingstoke, and we take orders online and will deliver the refill order to you at your home or business using our zero-emissions electric van. Visit our online refill shop at.
4. Make your beauty routine more planet-friendly
Our beauty regime is supposed to be beautiful, but we don’t want to create ugly problems for our planet. Small changes we can make will make all the difference.
Ditch your daily use of face wipes and use a hot cleanse cloth instead. Switch to solid soaps and shampoo bars to reduce packaging waste. Search for products with recyclable packaging. Buy refillable shampoos, conditioners, cleaners, toners to help reduce plastic waste. We have a selection of Health & Beauty refillable eco-friendly products in our Refill Shop.
5. Get Smart On Recycling
You’ll be surprised how many products in your home can be recycled rather than ending up on landfill.
Your local council or recycling provider will be able to give you a list of all the items you can recycle in your area. Visit https://www.basingstoke.gov.uk/a-z-waste-and-recycling which gives you a list of all the things you can recycle in the Basingstoke area. Some you may be able to put in your green recycling bin for collection. Others you may have to take to your local recycling centre.
Good quality clothing is best passed on to charities that use the money to fund their activities, but clothing of a poorer quality can be recycled into industrial cleaning rags or stuffing for car upholsterers.
6. Start Home Composting
Home composting is a great eco-friendly way to reduce your kitchen waste, and it also means you are creating a nutrient-rich fertiliser for your garden. You also won’t need to buy plastic bags of compost from the local garden centre.
You can compost pretty much any fruit and vegetable, although tomatoes are best avoided as you could have plants sprouting up all over the garden! You can also compost egg shells – they take a while to break down but can give structure to the compost. Tea bags are good if they are bio-degradable ones. Paper products can be added as long as it’s not glossy or coated paper – even paper napkins, coffee filters, paper bags, newspapers, shredded paper and bedding from hamster cages can go in. Its best to avoid composting meat & dairy products, cooking oils, pet waste and anything that contains plastic, metal or glass.
7. Stop using disposable paper plates, plastic cutlery, plastic cups & straws
These single use products may be marketed as cheap, practical and disposable, but they are big contributors to not only household waste, but also to commercial waste. Many commercial establishments have opted for reusable drinkware and tableware. We just need to do the same in our homes. Polycarbonate plastic drinkware is tough, unbreakable and can be re-used time and time again – and put in a dishwasher! So rather than buying disposable cups and plates for your next birthday party or social gathering, think about investing in sustainable, reusable alternatives that will last for years.
8. Be selective on your teabag brand
OK, so teabags may be small, but we do get through an awful lot of them in the UK!
Did you know that many teabags contain plastic (used to seal the edges) and this makes them non-bio degradable? These contribute to pollution in the form of microplastic particles that end up in the soil and soil organisms when you wrongly compost these non-biodegradable teabags.
Thankfully, some leading brands have now developed alternative biodegradable teabags that don’t damage the environment. Check out which ones have and which ones haven’t and buy your chosen brand of biodegradable teabags in your next shop! And don’t forget, you have the even better option of buying loose tea instead, but do ensure the loose tea packaging is recyclable.
We hope this article has motivated you to get started on reducing your household waste.
If we all work together and make small adaptations to our daily lives, we will make a difference.
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