Helping save the planet

Abi cox with her re usable coffee cup
Community Education Liaison Officer Abi Cox with her re-usable coffee cup

Top ten tips to keep up the momentum by re-using as much as possible.

It’s a massive task but small everyday changes everyone can make will have a big impact on the environment.

This is the message of a year-long South Yorkshire choose to re-use campaign targeting a range of items including water bottles, clothing, shopping bags and even nappies.

It is being run by Renewi, the firm behind the award-winning waste treatment facility at Manvers, together with the Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) Waste Partnership.

They have now compiled their top ten list of re-use ideas featured in the monthly campaign on social media:

  • If just 10% of Brits refilled a re-usable water bottle once a week it would save around 340 million plastic bottles a year.  Bottled water costs an average of 65p per litre compared to 0.1p for tap water.

  • Seven million disposable coffee cups are used every day in the UK.  This equates to 2.5 billion a year which is enough to fill the Royal Albert Hall!  Take your own cup along to be filled.

  • If used once a week, four or five re-usable bags will replace 520 plastic bags a year.

  • More than 1.2 billion metres of hard-to-recycle Clingfilm is used by households every year – enough to go around the world 30 times.   Beeswax wraps can be used, cleaned and used again to help keep foods fresher for longer.

  • A lot of plastic cutlery cannot be recycled.  Plastic litter from food packaging – including cups, plates, cutlery and straws – is a prime source of the 269,000 tons of plastic pollution swept into waterways and oceans.

  • The value of unused clothing in wardrobes is estimated at around £30 billion and around £140m worth of clothing goes into landfill each year. Buy fewer new clothes, repair old ones, buy second hand, donate to charity shops and do swaps.

  • Tea bags and coffee pods are usually thrown away without recycling.  Switching to loose leaf tea could help reduce waste and the used tea leaves are great for the compost heap. Switching to refillable coffee pods is a great way to cut waste, and the used coffee grounds can also be easily composted.

  • UK families spend around £52m each year on new school uniforms at an average cost of £230 per child, more for secondary school pupils, and this does not include PE kits. Look out for local school uniform swap schemes.

  • From birth to potty training the average baby will go through up to 6,000 disposable nappies which cost hundreds of pounds and take hundreds of years to decompose. In comparison, a baby only needs 20-30 real nappies which can also be used for future siblings.

  • UK households are estimated to have a staggering 40 million unused tech devices tucked away at home.  Old working phones or tablets could be passed on to a family member. Old phones can be donated to Hubbub Community Calling, tablets to The Great British Tech Appel, laptops to Laptops for Kids or games consoles to Get Well Gamers.

Community Education Liaison Officer Abi Cox, who is based at Manvers, said: “Saving the planet can seem like an enormous, daunting challenge.  But there are small changes we can all make which when added together can have a big impact on the environment. If we all chip in, we really can make a difference!”

There is more information about recycling and waste reduction at www.wasteless-sy.co.uk and on ‘Waste Less South Yorkshire’ social media.

Note to Editors:  The award-winning waste treatment facility at Manvers processes around a quarter of a million tonnes of leftover waste a year from 340,000 homes across Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham, turning it into useful products rather than sending it to landfill.

For further information contact Abi Cox or Rebecca Wilson on 07814 302297 or abigail.cox@renedwi.com or rebecca.wilson@renewi.com

Published: 9th March 2021