How to reduce waste

There are three key factors when thinking about how to reduce waste - the 3 R's:

• Reduce - buy less
• Reuse the things you buy
• Recycle what you don't need anymore

Here are some simple changes you can make at home to help reduce what you throw away.

Home composting and garden waste

For information about composting and garden waste collections see:

• Garden waste collections

See also: Get Composting website and home composting.

Food waste

Most food waste is avoidable, and reducing what you throw away is not only good for the environment, it will help save you money too.

Home composting uncooked fruit and vegetables and peelings, planning meals ahead and using up your leftovers are all easy ways to waste less.

You can find advice, tips and recipes to help you reduce food waste and save money, see:

• Preventing food waste at home
• Love food, hate waste website

Small electricals (WEEE - Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment)

If your item is in good working order, somebody else may be able to use it. You could consider:

• passing it on to a family member or friend
• donating it to a charity
• selling your item

If your item isn't working but you think it could be fixed, why not take it along to one of our local repair cafés:

• Adur: We are Over The Moon Repair Café website
• Worthing: Transition Town Worthing Repair Café website

If you are unable to repair or reuse your item, then please use our small electricals recycling service:

• What you can recycle: WEEE (Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment) collection service

Donating to charity

Good-quality, unwanted goods can be donated to charity. Some charity shops may offer to collect larger items for free.

To find local charity shops near you try a web search for:

• charity shops in Adur
  or
• charity shops in Worthing

You can also book a free collection of a wide range of household items including clothing, bric-a-brac and textiles through Anglo Recycling:

• Anglo Doorstep Collections - website

Collecting other items for charity

Many items can be collected for local charities to help them raise money, for example:

Plastic milk bottle tops, which cannot be put in your recycling bin, are collected for recycling by various eco-initiatives to raise money for charities like Chestnut Tree House. See:

• Milk bottle tops for charity (in their 'quick and simple ideas' section) - on the Chestnut Tree House website

Collect stamps and left over foreign currency from your overseas trips, or any unusable old British currency hiding at the back of the drawer, for the RNIB and make a difference to blind and partially sighted people, see:

• Save your stamps - on the RNIB website
• Surplus foreign and old  unusable British money - on the RNIB website

Recycle more

Remember that a lot of your household waste can be recycled rather than be sent to landfill, see:

• Find out what you can recycle

Reusable nappies

In West Sussex over 77,000 disposable nappies are sent to landfill every day. These can take hundreds of years to decompose, as well as taking up a lot of space in your refuse bin.

Reusable cloth nappies are more environmentally friendly, and are cheaper in the long run to use.

To avoid blocking your drains, follow Southern Water's advice on:

• The Unflushables (eg items such as wipes, nappies and cotton buds and others) - on the Southern Water website
• How to prevent blockages - on the Southern Water website

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