Taking care of your local environment is important. This will not just make your home look good- it will also help reduce your carbon emissions. Reducing waste is one of the best ways to take care of your environment. Here are some tips to help promote waste reduction in your local community:
- Set Up a Compost Pile
A lot of our waste is made up of spoiled food. You should not throw this food away as it will end up in the landfills. In these landfills, the food will decompose quickly and release methane, a gas that has worse effects on the environment than carbon dioxide. To prevent this, you should consider setting up a compost pile that is large enough for your entire neighbourhood. The compost pile will help improve water retention in the soil and will also prevent erosion. At the same time, it will keep organic materials out of landfills.
Some food items you can put in the compost pile include egg shells, food that is past the sale-by date, dairy products, dead leaves, tea bags, sawdust, hay, untreated wood, and even tissues and newspapers. Certain food items should never be thrown in the compost pile. They include dairy products, liquids, meat and bones, treated wood, weeds, pet litter, and yard clippings. Ideally, the compost pile should be set up in a location with access to sunlight and water. The pile should not be completely dried out.
If you intend to set up a compost pile in your own backyard, you can use two or three bins. This will ensure that you always have an actively composting pile and one that is ready to use. If you are not willing to put in this much effort, you can simply make a pile in a suitable location.
- Avoid Using Plastic Water Bottles
Plastic water bottles litter entire neighbourhoods because they are only meant to be used once. If you own an office, you can buy glasses and a water filter to eliminate the need for plastic water bottles. You can also come up with a policy restricting the use of these water containers. At school, students could be encouraged to come to school with reusable water bottles. Small incentives such as the awarding of random gifts could make students adopt a habit of carrying reusable water bottles.
- Paper
You can also reduce your paper waste in the office. One way to do this would be to avoid printing all your documents. You can save some of the files to your hard drive or even send them to your email. Also, you should set your printer to always print on both sides of the paper. This way, you will reduce your paper waste at least by half. Using smaller fonts will further reduce your paper needs. As an added advantage, you will need less storage space for your office documents. Your overall costs in waste removal will go down since the removal companies usually price their services based on the volume of waste.
- Participate in Community Projects
Communities around the UK usually organise projects to help reduce waste. In these events, people from around the neighbourhood will come together and volunteer to clean up the place. You can join them in activities such as collecting litter and organising a donation picnic.
Waste Express
Waste Express is one of the highest-rated waste removal companies in the UK. It operates all around the country, so if you need emergency waste removal services, you should not hesitate to give them a call.