Did you know that every year each home in Coventry produces over 900kg of waste? That's the equivalent to a small family car!
If you add together all household waste we handle each year, it would weigh about 123,000 tonnes. That's why it is a massive issue and the facts show that waste has an effect on climate change and on our daily lives.
The main aim is to prevent waste in the first place – we hope to prevent, reuse and recycle as much of what is usually classed as waste as possible.
We all need to recognise the importance of waste prevention and recycling and changing attitudes won't happen overnight. Education is important but we will also be looking at collection services and putting other systems in place to help people make the right choices about getting rid of their waste.
What can you do to help?
- Make sure that you know which bin your waste should go in by visiting our A-Z of rubbish and recycling
- Start home composting
- Make sure that you always have reusable shopping bags with you – this will save you money over the long run, too!
- Before throwing something away, consider whether it could be given to someone you know, or a charity shop, for reuse, or re-purposed into something else that you can use
- Save energy in your home
- Waste less water
- Think before you buy e.g. think about whether you can hire or borrow things like tools, that you would otherwise buy
- Use websites like Freecycle or online auction sites for items that you can no longer use
- Try to choose products with less packaging (e.g. do your apples need to be packaged, or could you buy them loose?) and if you feel that a product has too much packaging, you can contact the retailer to let them know!
For more information on recycling in Coventry please visit the Coventry Recycling Club.
