Household waste is a normal part of everyday life. Putting the garbage out is nearly as important task as cleaning or vacuuming. Yet, more and more families are finding themselves with large amount of waste. That’s more or less because of the increased consummation of packaged food, improper storage of items, and/or unnecessary purchases that people want to get rid of in time.
The constantly increasing amount of household waste puts a lot of pressure on local authorities. In the UK, the domestic litter thrown away for a year is around 7,2 million tonnes. That’s a lot! However, instead of reducing the time between garbage pick-ups, the UK’s local authorities are increasing that period in order to save money. That leaves the UK households with more garbage than ever. Therefore, proper waste management has turned to be very important for people who like to live in a clean and healthy environment.
If you would like to join these people, then you should know a few things about waste management. Waste management involves many methods to treat rubbish. The most popular and used methods are waste reduction, waste reuse and recycling. Implementing one or all of these methods leads to many benefits both to you and the environment. They reduce the release of pollutants, save energy, reduce the demand of landfill space and reduce or prevent green house gas emissions. So, here are a few tips on how to best manage your household waste.
Reduce the Rubbish You Bring In
It sounds simple but you may face a lot of difficulties before you actually reduce the waste you bring in your home, as something as regular as food shopping can produce such a large amount of packaging, wrapping, plastic bags, food waste and more. Here are just a few tips to start with:
- Avoid packaged items if possible. Packaging reflects a great percentage of household waste, and if avoided, that would be great.
- Pay attention to the type of packaging on items you are purchasing. Whether it is recyclable or not?
- Prepare food at home. You will produce some garbage from wrappings but it will be significantly less than if you had a takeaway.
- Drink less bottled water. If your tap water is good to drink, there is no reason to purchase bottled water unless you are out for a walk.
Reduce the Garbage You Throw Away
Again, you may face difficulties in execution but results will amaze you. The amount of your household waste will drop down significantly by simply declining the rubbish you throw away.
- Recycle whenever possible to reduce the volume of waste that ends up in your garbage.
- Shop for durable items.
- Take proper care of your appliances to reduce their turnover.
- Repair your broken items or have them repaired.
- Give away, donate or sell items you don’t want or need.
- Compost your food waste.
Reuse Whatever You Can
Find a new purpose of the items you don’t need any more. This will also help to reduce the amount of waste that comes out of your home. Here are some items that can be reused:
- plastic bottles
- shopping bags
- containers
- paper
- envelops
Recycle and Compost
Recycling and composting are a simple and easy way to reduce the waste that comes out of your household. To ensure your garbage will be recycled, you need nothing more than sorting it into different containers according its type. The rest, leave to your local council! They will come and pick up your trash on the day set for rubbish collection. As far as composting goes, just put all bio-degradable materials you have into a compost bin and let the nature do the rest. Things you should avoid placing into your compost bin are:
- nappies
- meat
- cleaning products
- bodily fluids
- household chemicals
Home composting is simple, and benefits your garden. Use the compost you make to fertilize the soil into your garden. It will improve soil’s structure and its overall health.