Packaging - plastic

Packaging

The UK produces around 10 million tonnes of packaging waste every year. Only 50% of all used packaging is recovered.

• Try to avoid buying products that come with excessive packaging.
• Try to re-use packaging that you receive or give to schools for creative projects.
• For waste clearly labelled recyclable, use blue bins or take to the nearest civic amenity site.
• The Reclaimer will deal with many items of recyclable household and business waste in the Glasgow area. Address: 154 Wilton Street, Glasgow G20 6BS – Telephone: 0141 945 0700 or 07774 938 478 – Email: info@thereclaimer.co.uk

Paints and decorating materials

• Try to buy paint products that are environmentally friendly and that have a low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) rating. Natural pigment plant-based paints are available by mail order, at The Green Shop and Ecotopia for example, and at the Glasgow-based ethical shop Entrading 88 West Regent Street, Glasgow G2 2QZ – Telephone: 0141 332 2424.
• Judge carefully how much paint or varnish a job really needs. Clean and reuse brushes, rollers and trays carefully, first wiping off the bulk of the paint on to newspaper.
• The Community Re-paint Initiative operates in several areas. They will take leftover paints and will usually accept large quantities of surplus paints from decorators.

Paper

• Recycle your magazines, newspapers, comics, office paper, brochures and junk mail in your blue bin, at recycling points, civic amenity sites, or through the community enterprise known as The Reclaimer.
• Be economical with the world’s forests! Computers, photocopiers and faxes are the biggest users of paper – SAVE IT!
• Sign up to online banking and paper-free billing schemes if possible (e.g. utility companies); and if your current utility suppliers do not yet provide such services, write them a letter to ask them why not.
• Buy recycled paper as much as possible. High quality 100% post-consumer recycled paper products are available in some local stores (Entrading) and by mail order (e.g. The Natural Collection, The Green Office). A complete list of shops selling recycled goods can be found on the Sort-it website.
• Save as much as possible for re-use (scribbling, phone messages). Keep clean, un-crumpled A4 sheers for computer drafts. Save big used sheets (computer print-out), coloured or shiny paper, for nursery and primary schools.
• You can stop unwanted mail. Register with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) to stop unwanted mail that is delivered to a named addressee at your address. 
• You can also opt out of the Royal Mail Door-to-Door Delivery Service which is used by organisations to send unaddressed mail outs and leaflets. Address: Freepost RRBT-ZBXB-TTTS, Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX – Telephone: 08457 950950 – Email: optout@royalmail.com – Website: Royal Mail: Door-to-door - opting out.
• Many offices and businesses have paper recycling schemes – Does yours?

Plastic bags

• SNUB – Say No to Unwanted Bags.
• Remember to take bags shopping – preferably non-plastic – and avoid bringing home more plastic bags. Use cotton/cloth bags and buy ‘bags for life’ from supermarkets.
• Tuck a bag into your handbag or car for unexpected purchases. Many organisations (such as supermarkets and charities) sell cloth bags.
• Save all clean plastic bags for re-use. Give big bags to Charity Shops.
• Some supermarkets have in-store recycling facilities for plastic bags. Check out Sort-it to search for recycling facilities in your local area.

Tip: Be creative with plastic bags

How to crochet with plastic bags and make useful things.

Plastic bottles

• Refill bottles when possible. Grassroots Organic and Roots and Fruits sell many household products, such as washing up liquid and floor cleaner, from large refill containers. You can take old bottles to the shop to refill them. This saves money and is far more environmentally friendly than getting a new container every time.
• Grassroots Organic 20 Woodlands Road, Glasgow, G3 6UR – Telephone: 0141 353 3278
• Roots and Fruit, 455, Great Western Road, Glasgow, G12 8HH – Telephone: 0141 339 3077
• For plastic bottles that are clearly labelled recyclable (recycling symbol 1 and 2), put in Plastic Banks (see also Packaging for more information on Plastic Recycling).
• Cut white plastic tubs and bottles into strips to make garden labels. Or use tubs whole for seedlings. Cut off the top of a plastic lemonade bottle to make an instant funnel; the bottom half makes a mini-greenhouse for an individual seedling (pierce for ventilation).