Recycling charity Recycling Now is celebrating 20 years of Recycling Week, and there is no better time to learn about the best ways of ensuring your rubbish ends up in the right place.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
It’s easy to overlook the most important part of Recycling Week – that recycling should be seen as the LAST RESORT for your waste!
Surely, you’ve heard the phrase reduce, reuse, recycle. This is important to remember whenever you’re buying or disposing of anything!
-
Reduce: minimise the amount of waste you produce by purchasing things with minimal or no packaging. Buy loose fruit and veg wherever possible, and try to buy things which come in easily recyclable containers (e.g. cardboard)
-
Reuse: take a second to think before you throw something away – can this be used elsewhere? Donate items that are still usable to a charity shop, repurpose your empty containers, or reuse your shopping bag to keep things in use as long as possible.
What can be recycled?
Your local council decides what can and cannot be recycled. Visit the Recycle Now website and enter your postcode to see a full list of items you can put in each of your bins.
Recycling bins come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours depending on where you live, so keep an eye on how they are described. You may also find bins for specific types of waste – keep an eye on how they are labelled to ensure you are not putting your waste somewhere it shouldn’t be! The following bins can be found in many types of accommodation throughout the city:
-
Mixed recycling bins take paper, cardboard, cans, plastic bottles, and glass jars. If you live in a house, these bins are often blue, and you will either have a wheelie bin for your house or a larger communal bin for your street. On campus and in halls, these bins will often be green, and found alongside general waste bins.
-
Composting bins take food waste. Vegetable scraps, eggshells, coffee grounds and more can go into your compost bin. These are currently available only in University of Liverpool halls. If you do not have a composting bin, your food waste must go in the general waste bin.
-
Household waste bins are iconic in Liverpool – the purple wheelie bin is a point of pride for the city. These bins are for everything which cannot be recycled, and you should try your hardest to make sure as little as possible goes in these bins. Around campus, these bins are often coloured black.
For more information, see the Liverpool City Council website, which has everything you might need to know to help you recycle properly during your time in Liverpool.
Leave Liverpool Tidy – volunteer today!
Sick of rubbish lining your street? Keen to make a difference in your home away from home? Join our Leave Liverpool Tidy litter picking volunteer opportunity and come along to one of our litter picking sessions. These are a great chance to help in your local community while working towards volunteering accreditation on your Higher Education Achievement Report!
Our first litter pick will be taking place on the 1st November – we can’t wait for you to sign up!
See an issue? Change It!
See an issue with recycling around campus? Don’t just complain about it, Change It! Change It is the platform for students to express their ideas on how campus could be improved. Either follow this link, or head to the Making Change button at the top of the page and click “Your Ideas” from the drop-down menu. There, you can submit your ideas or vote on other peoples’ ideas. Check it out now and make change on campus!