Odds & Ends

There are some items, such as coffee pods, ink cartridges and toothpaste tubes, which are ver y tricky to recycle.

Mark Hall recommends chucking used biodegradable coffee pods into a compost bin. “But if you use nonrecyclable capsules, you may be better ser ved by simply binning them,” adds the recycling expert.

Ink cartridges for printers contain harmful chemicals so are difficult to recycle and shouldn’t be put in general waste as they can take over 1,000 years to decompose. Buy a brand where empty cartridges can be returned to the manufacturer or stockist for refilling.

Toothpaste tubes, which consist of several types of plastic and a layer of metal, are not usually recyclable. Instead, choose pump toothpastes, which usually are.