Black Country Rubbish Challenge

Occasions

There are many occasions when we generate more rubbish than usual: often on special occasions. Avoid the inconvenience of your bin overflowing by following a few simple tips. The chances are that on a special occasion your bin would be full of food packaging, gift wrap, bottles and cans, but don’t necessarily think of this as rubbish. Not all of these tips will work for you but try a few and see which ones that you get on with.

Everybody enjoys good food at a party from jelly and ice cream to Barbecued Sirloin. A good tip especially for parties and celebrations is to buy your food in bulk to minimise packaging. Your food will be cheaper and there will be much less rubbish in your bin. When buying your meat why not ask your butcher to use less packaging? If you are shopping in a supermarket it’s best to buy from fresh produce counters whenever possible: this will stop your bin filling up with unnecessary packaging.

Hopefully you will receive hundreds of presents and there will be loads of wrapping paper and cards. Why not try reusing it for gifts that you give to others, if you are a little more creative try covering boxes to use for storage or give it to children to cover their school books or for art projects. Greetings cards can be chopped up to make gift tags that will save you money as they can be very expensive. If any of this is too much effort they can, of course, be recycled.

When it comes to clearing up after a party re-use your plastic glasses and cutlery they will usually last for a few more bashes and only takes a few minutes to wash them and you are ready to party on. It is also more than likely that you will have quite a few empty bottles and cans: a great way to separate these out from your other rubbish is to provide party goers with another bin to drop their empties into and the work is done for you.