If you want to reduce waste, step one is to get to know your bins! Have a look at the main types of waste that fill your recycling and rubbish bins. Once you know what makes up most of your waste, you can look for alternatives for those items. Download
Please contact me at sally.soady@gmail.com if you would like to add anything else, particularly things relevant to your village.
Try going Plastic Free this July
Refuse
Refuse what you don’t need. Learn to say no! Say no to produce wrapped in plastic! Say no to freebies and bargains!
- Take your own bags and containers
- Shop in the zero waste shops (e.g. Refills on the Road, Hathersage Bakery, Hope Deli, Grindleford community shop)
- Take your own bags (e.g. Peak Fruits) or containers e.g. for cheese, cakes, fish (fish van), etc.
- Take your own bottle/mug for drinks and cutlery for food on the
- Use your phone to take pictures of flyers, posters or business cards. Accept the information, but not the physical item!
- Have your milk delivered in glass bottles which are reused, e.g. Middleton’s Diary, who also deliver local eggs, cream, yogurts, etc.
- Swap to leaf tea to avoid plastic in teabags
- Grow your own – allotments in Grindleford & Hathe Community Orchard in Bradwell, or even a few herbs on a windowsill.
- Press your apples to make apple juice using the Transition Hope Valley apple pre
- Produce share and swap, fortnightly in Bamford over the summer
- Plant/seed swap via School Spring Fair
- Hathersage Country Market
- Delivery of local foods – Sauced Here
- Veg box schemes e.g. Beanies in Sheffield
- Buy seed potatoes and legumes seeds via Transition Chesterfield Potato Day.
- Put a stop to unwanted mail by signing up to the Mailing Preference Servic
Reduce
Simply reduce what you’re purchasing by being mindful about what you need and want. Be realistic about what you actually need.
OK, so you’ve decided you need it. Does it have to be new? Re-using a second-hand item is generally best from a climate change point of view, because most of the carbon emissions in products are caused by making them in the first place. The more they can be re-used, the better.
If you do need to buy new, when you’re deciding between suppliers, have a look at their sustainability policy. Some will even have a link to their sustainability or ethics policy on their homepage, as they know it can make them stand out from the competition.
- Plan your meals before you go shopping, use leftovers in new recipes and portion properly with measuring devices. Visit lovefoodhatewaste.com for more information.
- Buying A-rated energy efficient appliances are better for the environment and will help cut your energy bills. If you can afford to pay slightly more for better quality goods such as electrical items, they may last longer.
- Swap to LED lightbulbs
- To help reduce battery waste, use rechargeable batteries.
- Help to reduce Derbyshire’s rubbish mountain by swapping disposable nappies for washable ones.
- Can you borrow or hire tools rather than buying them?
- Check out what’s on offer via local Facebook pages, charity shops, etc.
- Replace cling film with reusable beeswax wraps, reusable food covers or foil.
- Replace disposable plastic toothbrushes and interdental toothpicks with bamboo.
Reuse
Reusing and repairing go hand in hand. When you’re deciding whether to toss something and buy a new one, ask yourself if you can find a way to reuse or repair it.
Buy second hand or make it yourself! Repair broken items. Repurpose old clothes, or household items and breathe new life into your wardrobe by participating in clothing swaps.
- Eyam Repair café
- Alpkit Hathersage – Hack, patch and sew – repair facility for outdoor gear.
Reusing also means selling or donating your used items so they go to loving homes instead of the landfill.
- Local Facebook groups for selling/swapping items
- Bamford News Freecycle
- Book exchange in The Anglers Rest
- Bag 2 School – raising money for Bamford Primary School – 2-3 times a year
- Hathersage jumble sales 2-3 times a year
- Alpkit – Continuum project to donate outdoor gear
- A Different Gear in Sheffield – bikes and bike parts, recycle into usable bikes in the UK or Africa
- Glasses (without their cases) at Hope Valley Opticians in Hathersage
- Hope car boot sales
- Ebay and Freecycle
- Local charities, including Derbyshire Wildlife Trust shop in Bakewell and British Heart Foundation furniture collection service.
Rot
Fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags (not plastic), eggshells and torn up cardboard tubes together with plant waste from the garden can all be composted in your garden making a rich soil conditioner for you to use.
Compost bins can be ordered by visiting derbyshire.getcomposting.com or calling 0844 571 4444.
Recycle
After you have refused, reduced, and reused there shouldn’t be much left to recycle. Recycling is treated by the Zero Waste movement as a last resort to be used only after steps
1 Refuse, 2 Reduce & 3 Reuse have been exhausted.
- Paper and cardboard recycling for Bamford Primary School
- Grindleford School collects batteries (collection bin at The Anglers Rest), old clothes and crisp packets for recycling.
- Edale school collects printer cartridges for recycling
- Contact lens, blister pack and foil covers, any brand, Hope Valley Opticians in Hathersage
- Inhalers via Evelyn Medical Centre
- Stamps collected at The Anglers Rest – sent to the British Hedgehog Preservation
- Foil bottle tops etc. are too small on their own for recycling, so collect until you have sufficient to form into a ball the size of a fist, then it can go into recycling.
- Kerbside recycling.
- Waterswallows household waste recycling centre and bulky waste collection.
