Waste
We have a small group aiming to promote recycling, reusing and repairing through educating the public with concise, accessible information.
You can read their first meeting notes here. If you would like to know more, contact Tom North on gandt@dnorth.net
Reduce
Avoid the waste problem altogether by not creating waste.
Reduce the number of plastic bags you accept at the checkout,
and buy products that have minimal packaging.
Over 7 million tonnes of food is thrown away in the UK each year, most of which could have been eaten.
The Love Food Hate Waste website has lots of simple tips on how to store food, manage use by dates by clever use of the freezer, and a searchable recipe page to help use up surplus food ingredients before they go out of date. See more searchable recipes at BBCGoodFood.com
Reduce water consumption and save money with these tips and free gadgets from the water companies.
Re-use -by Donating
Reusing is better than recycling. We would recommend you to Macclesfield's Freecycle group. A great way to find a good home for surplus items, that are too good to throw away, but not worth selling.
To use the system you just join Freecycle using the link above, then you can send an email offering any surplus items you have. Very often you will get a reply within a couple of hours and have the item collected the same day. No money must change hands.
Equally, you can look out for items that would be useful to you, and also post a "wanted" message.
Don't forget Charity Shops - Donate to them and buy from them!
Donate your old specs to Vision Aid Overseas
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Recycle old mobile phones, printer inkjet and laser toner cartridges for the benefit of a charity of your choice. |
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Re-use -by Buying Second Hand or Refurbished goods
If you buy 2nd hand goods you preserve resources. Businesses like Electrofarm have been set up to refurbish and resell electrical goods with a guarantee, but watch out for energy-efficiency with older products.
Repair
In November 2010 Which? found that 31 out of 33 electrical equipment faults were repaired more cheaply and with greater customer satisfaction (78% vs 54%) by local independent repairers than by the manufacturer.
It isn't always cheaper to throw away the old appliance and buy new. Repairs can often be one tenth of the cost of a replacement.
Try a simple Google search for "electrical repairs Macclesfield"
Sunday Times Recommendations 6/3/2011:-
Recycle
The new silver wheelie bins accept unsorted recyclable material with very few exclusions. You can now recycle many more things than before:
- All envelopes including window envelopes
- Egg boxes and cardboard tubes
- Telephone directories
- All clean empty plastic bags, carrier bags
- Cling film
- Aluminium “tin foil” (leave it flat)
- Waxed paper coffee/tea cups
- Cartons for milk and juice etc
- Leave labels and lids on jars, bottles and plastic containers
- Aerosols (except hazardous liquids such as paint) but separate the plastic cap and the can.
Among the few things that cannot be recycled are greeting cards with glitter, polystyrene, and hard plastics such as plant pots.
"Where does Macclesfield's recycling go?"
The contents of the silver bins are taken to a paper company, UPM at Shotton.
- About half the weight of the material is paper that can be taken directly into the paper mill to make new newsprint.
- Other materials are sorted and baled for recycling elsewhere:-
- Aluminum and steel cans are separated magnetically.
- Plastics are sorted into six types using optical systems
- Glass is sorted into two types.
- What can't be recycled is burned to provide 95% of the factory's heat needs and 30% of its electricity.
- Take another look at the details of the new system here . These include a video and a process flow chart
Recycling Locations in Macclesfield (please tell us of other places to add to this map)
Click the map for details of what and where to recycle.
Cheshire East's website has helpful information on Recycling, and Reusing, including:
Household Waste Centres
Recycling Advice
Refuse Recycling Collections
Waste Collection for Business
Waste Strategy & Performance
CEC Recycling Performance: One of our members has prepared an assessment of the performance and costs of Cheshire East Council's waste management. This shows that total waste per household is very high in Cheshire East, that recycling performance is good, and that costs are above average. You can read the document here