Recycling is very important in contributing to lowering your carbon footprint as it saves energy and natural resources and it also reduces the pressure on landfill. For example, recycling aluminium requires only 5% of the energy and 5% of the CO2 emissions compared with mining and smelting. Whilst reclaiming one ton of steel saves 1.5 tons of ore, and 74% of the energy to make it from raw materials. Considering every household gets through around 200 aluminium cans and 600 tin cans each year, a lot of energy and raw materials can be saved by recycling cans and tins. If all the cans in the UK were recycled, there would be 14 million fewer full dustbins going to landfill each year. A recycled aluminium can saves enough energy to run a television for thee hours, and recycling seven steel cans saves enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 26 hours. Furthermore, since most local authorities in the UK have a kerbside recycling scheme it has never been easier to recycle.

Recycling in and around the home can be easy if you know how. Here are some simple ways to help you:

1. Bring your own bags to the supermarket so you do not waste new materials
2. Use cloth towels in the kitchen rather than paper towels as they can be reused rather than being thrown away
3. Avoid buying overly-packaged goods
4. Do not buy more than you eat to reduce waste
5. Use reusable food containers for leftovers rather than aluminium foil or bags
6. Look out for products that are recyclable and made from recycled material. This will increase the demand for recycled products.
   
7. Donate things you don’t want to charity or sell them (in a junk sale or on the internet) instead of throwing them away
8. Buy recycled paper and write or print on both sides of paper. Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, 7000 gallons of water and 3 cubic yards of landfill space (3)
9. Use recycled material at home for crafts (or give them to children)
10. Make gift tags out of old Christmas or Birthday cards
11. Reuse ribbons and bows
12. Recycle inkjet and toner cartridges and buy remanufactured ink and toner cartridges. Each manufactured cartridge keeps around 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills and saves half a gallon of oil
13. Make recycling bins in your home and office readily available and labeled appropriately to encourage others to use them
14. Recycle technology such as old mobile phones through e-waste recycling
15. Purchase rewritable CDs and DVDs so that you can reuse them
16. Avoid buying hazardous material as they are difficult to recycle
17. Make a compost heap in your garden or buy a compost bin. Plant trimmings, grass cuttings and leftover food, tea bags and coffee grinds can then be used as a fertilizer to help your garden grow
18. Buy goods in refill packs (they are often cheaper too)
19. Avoid buying disposable items and invest in durable, high quality products

Moreover, there a number of products available to make recycling in your home even easier. For example, a can crusher is simple to use, will reduce the bulk of your recycling by a third and costs around £14. Moreover, a kitchen composter is great for keeping scraps which can then be dumped in your garden or compost bin to feed the nutrients to hungry plants. They do not leak or create mess and they contain a filter that allows air to circulate and prevents rotting while absorbing bad smells. The kitchen composter costs around £14 and is a great way to recycle scraps of food. Another kitchen product is Jar Tops which are around £11. They come in different styles of caps such as vinegar caps, chocolate shaker caps, creamer caps, sugar shaker caps and so on. They will fit on almost any glass jar and they give you a new purpose for your used jars, while saving the energy needed to recycle them.

In addition, there are many different types of recycling bins available so you can easily sort out the rubbish instead of having a heap of plastic bags full of jumbled recycling. For example, ‘Ben the Bin Recycling Sorter’ is a stackable, washable recycling sorter that re-uses plastic bags and makes separating rubbish easy. It allows you to re-use old carrier bags and is designed to hold them open so you can easily drop in your rubbish into separate compartments. It costs around £19 and was a success in Dragons’ Den.

If you have a wood burning stove or open fire, the ‘Paper Logmaker’ is great for recycling paper for fuel and saving money. It is essentially a recycled plastic tube with a plunger that allows you to push waster paper, junk mail and newspaper down inside it and seal around it with more paper. This product is simple and effective and reduces waste paper going to landfill. The logs burn for around half an hour and even though this creates CO2; paper going to landfill creates methane which is 23 times more harmful.

There are so many materials that can be recycled, from paper, plastic, metal and glass, to furniture, electronic equipment, building material and vehicles. Recycling is an important factor in conserving natural resources and greatly contributes towards improving the environment. It is not hard to recycle and so should become an integral part of our daily lifestyle (4).

(1) www.library.thinkquest.org

(2) www.recycling-guide.org.uk

(3) www.eponline.com

(4) www.hubpages.com