Waste less this Mother’s Day
Shropshire Council and their contractor Veolia are urging residents to remember that, if they are showering their mums with gifts this Mother’s Day (Sunday 18 March 2012), then think about the waste that can result from this.
- Reduce – there are ways of giving ‘waste free gifts’; for example, offering services like a massage or theatre tickets, instead of products, which tend to come in packaging.
- Re-use – for example if you buy new clothes you can reuse the old ones by donating them to a local charity shop or putting them into a local textile bank.
- Recycle – greetings cards, foil wrappers from chocolates, and empty bottles of champagne can be recycled simply in your kerbside recycling boxes.
- Compost – any organic waste from all those extra treats could make excellent ingredients for your garden compost heap. Fruit and vegetable peelings from that special dinner; tea bags from her breakfast in bed, and cardboard boxes from her chocolates – all of these can be composted at home to make a wonderful free soil improver to treat your garden too.
And once the special day is over you can even compost cut flowers once they have past their best. Cards and envelopes from Mother’s Day cards are also great for making compost too.
Home composting has heaps of benefits for the environment too. Not only does it help keep waste out of landfill, but it can also reduce the need for waste collection and avoid the environmental impact of buying in so many garden products.
To make it even easier for people to get into the home composting habit, there are special offers available for cut-price compost bins to residents in Shropshire. For more details go to www.shropshire.gov.uk/compost
Councillor Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member with responsibility for recycling, said:
“Special occasions and celebrations like this are times when we may generate more waste than usual, and so we want to remind everyone that it is vital to recycle and compost to help keep waste out of landfill.”
