Top tips for reducing waste at Christmas

The team tasked with reducing waste at Perth and Kinross Council has been sharing their top five tips for having a waste-free Christmas and NewYear.

The team hopes the tips with make residents in Perth and Kinross make a difference to reducing the contents of their green-lidded general waste bin over the festive period.

• Glass bottles and jars can be recycled at a number of points across the region, and will raise some much-needed cash for the Cornhill Macmillan Centre at Perth Royal Infirmary through their ‘Give Your Glass for Cornhill’scheme.The more glass bottles are recycled over the festive period, the more money will be raised for Cornhill Macmillan for supporting people with cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.

Glass cannot be recycled in household blue-lidded bins for kerbside recycling, however they can at recycling centres and at a number of recycling points in the community.

• The waste team is urging people to make sure they know what is in their kitchen cupboards and their freezer before going out for an expensive food shop. A spokesperson said:“The Love Food Hate Waste website [www. lovefoodhatewaste.com] has useful storage ideas to make your food last longer, guidance about portion sizes and ideas for planning party food and turning leftovers into another tasty meal.

“Any unavoidable leftover food waste such as vegetable peelings and tea bags can be composted at home or recycled in a brown bin with any cooked or raw food waste.”

• Many families will receive unwanted Christmas presents that will either get thrown away or put to the back of the cupboard never to be used. However, unwanted Christmas presents and other usable items that have been replaced with new ones can be donated to a number of charity shops across Perth and Kinross.

Anything from an old sofa, a bike that is now too small, old toys and old working electrical gadgets can be donated to charity shops, and re-homed for someone else to love. For a list of nearby charity shops, visit www.pkc.gov.uk/ wheretodonate

•The waste team also want to remind residents of their textile recycling banks, which can take old items thrown out or replaced over the Christmas period from the wardrobe.

Textiles such as bedding, towels, clothes, shoes and bras can be recycled at eight different recycling centres in the county, as well as at some recycling points. For every tonne of bras donated to a textile recycling bank, Nathan’s Wastesavers will make a donation to Breast Cancer Now’s research.

There are also bra reuse and recycling drop-off bins at Miss Forsyth’s lingerie shop on South Street, Perth, and at Bell’s Sports Centre.

• Check your kerbside collection dates online at www.pkc.gov.uk/ festivecollections in an effort to reduce the amount of paper waste.