Search eastleigh.gov.uk MyEastleigh Residents Business Council Home Residents Environment Climate change and environment What you can do Avoiding waste Avoiding waste Reduce, reuse, recycle Reduce Don’t waste food Food makes up a substantial amount of what we throw away, but it doesn’t have to. Planning meals, sticking to a shopping list, freezing leftovers and going by use by dates (rather than best before) are all sensible ways to cut back on food waste. Love food, hate waste has some tasty recipes to make better use of leftovers, while apps like TooGoodToGo and Olio help stop food from retailers and neighbours from going to waste. Remember you can compost and recycle your peelings and other unavoidable food waste. Avoid single use plastics There’s been lots in the media recently about the damage single use plastics do to our environment, and rightfully so. There are lots of ways we can avoid them, such as: carry a ‘bag for life’ take a drink bottle or coffee cup out with you say no to plastic straws and coffee stirrers use compostable bamboo toothbrushes, instead of plastic ones use bars of soap, shampoo and conditioner, rather than bottles give children wooden colouring pencils instead of plastic felt-tip pens buy products with no/less plastic packaging take your own containers along to a local refill station like the Spinnery 53 or the Hampshire Refillery Buy items that are made to last Avoiding so called ‘fast fashion’ and instead investing in items that are made to last could be one way of reducing your carbon footprint and saving money in the long run. If something gets damaged, bring out the sewing machine or ask for help from a practical friend or family member to make a repair. Purchase less ‘stuff’ By thinking carefully about whether we really need an item, we can avoid buyers remorse, reduce clutter in our homes, save money and help the planet at the same time. Helpful tips include: delay before making an impulse purchase only shop when you need something gift experiences (like a cookery course) rather than material objects treasure what you already have Reuse Simple swaps Many single use items have reusable alternatives. Using these simple swaps will save you a trip to the shop, and the waste bin! You could swap: cling film for reusable wax wraps plastic cutlery for steel cutlery single use batteries for rechargeable ones disposable nappies and wet wipes for reusable ones Get creative Avoiding waste doesn’t have to be boring. You can get creative by repairing or ‘upcycling’ old clothes, furniture or computers. The internet is full of ideas on how you can craft one item into another, from pallets into planters, to making your own cleaning products from kitchen items. Buy second-hand Buying ‘preloved’ furniture, clothing and other items from charity shops, instead of new items, can reduce environmental costs that come from the manufacturing process and support a good cause at the same time. There are also plenty of apps and websites dedicated to the buying, selling and giving away of second-hand goods. Make a single use, a double use Before throwing something out, think about whether it could have a second use. Here are a practical ideas: jam jars to store screws and other small items bread bags as nappy bin liners toothbrushes for cleaning in between tiles junk mail as scrap paper using butter wrappers to grease a baking tray yoghurt pots as seedling pots Recycle Use our collections Through your green recycling bin collection, you can recycle paper, cardboard, food tins, drink cans, empty aerosol cans and plastic bottles fortnightly. On the same day, you can recycle glass and used batteries using your black box collection. Every week you can recycle food waste through your brown bin collection to turn it into clean energy. You can also subscribe to our fortnightly garden waste recycling collections. Use a local recycling bank There are a number recycling banks across the Borough where you can take textiles, books, electronics and other items to be recycled. You can find recycling banks in your area on the Recycle Now website. Hampshire County Council’s Smart Living lists reuse and repair sites. Some supermarkets and local Co-op stores allow you recycle 'soft plastics'. Use household waste and recycling centres Finally, you can take waste and recycling to one of the four Household waste and recycling centres in the Borough. Contact details Eastleigh Borough Council, Eastleigh House, Upper Market Street, Eastleigh, SO50 9YN Telephone: 023 8068 8000 Support links Jobs Newsletter Privacy Cookies Accessibility Feedback Contact Built by Etch © Copyright 2021 Eastleigh Borough Council This site uses cookies to store information on your computer Some of these cookies are necessary to make the site work. We’d also like to use optional cookies to help improve your experience on the site. You can manage your optional cookie preferences below. Using this tool will set a cookie on your device to remember your preferences. Your preferences can be changed at any time. 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