Every year the average Craven household disposes of around 1 tonne of refuse, to which most of this goes to landfill.

In addition to recycling, we can reduce the amount of rubbish we produce.

This section will provide you with helpful tips on how to reduce the amount of rubbish that we create, new ways of recycling and using energy more efficiently.

1. Top tips at home
2. Top tips at work
3. Home Composting
4. Re-usable nappies
5. Charity Shops
6. A-Z of Waste and Recycling

Top tips at home

Reduce the amount of unwanted junk mail by putting a ‘no junk mail please’ sticker on your door and register with the Mailing Preference Service or call (0845) 703 4599. You can also reduce the amount of unaddressed mail you receive by registering your details with the Royal Mail Door to Door Service.  Please send your details to Freepost RRBT-ZBXB-TTTS, Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX or email: optout@royalmail.com

Buy unwrapped goods rather than heavily packaged where possible, such as loose fruit and vegetables or choose products in packaging you know can be recycled.

Reusing jars, empty bottles and boxes reduces the need to purchase new items, which will save you money.

Compost your kitchen and garden waste.  For more information on composters please visit Home Composter Offer.

Reuse carrier bags when visiting supermarkets.  Each person in the UK uses an average of 134 plastic bags each year. Cotton Reusable bags are available to buy for just £1 each at

• Town Hall, High Street, Skipton
• Craven Swimming Pool, Skipton
• Settle Town Hall, Settle 
• Settle Tourist Information Centre, Settle

Cancel delivery of unwanted newspapers and give good quality magazines to your local doctor's surgery or dentist for the waiting room.

Where possible repair items such as broken toys and furniture.  Take shoes to be repaired.

Unwanted items such as furniture, clothes, toys, books can be taken to charity shops/organisations.  Please contact your local charitable shops/organisations for more details.

Cut down on the amount of food that's wasted by preparing the right amount for meals and using up leftovers.
 

Try to avoid using disposable items such as batteries, cameras, paper cups, plates.  Household and car batteries can be disposed of safely at the Household Waste and Recycling Centres

Use energy efficient light bulbs, this will save on resources and money.  They also last ten times longer than standard bulbs.  Find out more at www.saveenergy.co.uk

You can even recycle your old pair of glasses.  Find out more at www.vao.org.uk

Top tips at work

Use both sides of paper for printing and old paper for notes.  Re-use envelopes where possible.

Avoid using disposable cups, bring in a glass or mug to work instead.  Disposable cups can be recycled see www.save-a-cup.co.uk for more information.

Buy Recycled, a range of high quality products are available at competitive prices.  Please visit www.recycledproducts.org.uk

Donate old computer and audio visual equipment to community groups or school.

 

Re-useable Nappies

Around 8 million nappies are thrown away every day in the UK and it could take several hundred years for all these nappies in landfill sites to decompose.  So why not try modern, re-useable nappies.  For more information see Real Nappies

Charity Shops

Charity shops accept re-useable items such as clothes, books, CDs, shoes.  Please contact your local charitable shops for more details. www.yell.com

For more ideas on how to dispose on unwanted items rather than putting them in the bin, please see A-Z of Waste and Recycling.