Go Green for 2007

With households in the United Kingdom throwing away an estimated 3 million additional tonnes of waste over the Christmas period, Waste Awareness Wales takes a look at how you can make it a greener Christmas and New Year with your post-celebration clean-up and de-clutter.

Councillor Richard Parry Hughes, Chairperson for Waste Awareness Wales, explains: "We all know how important it is to protect the environment, and each and every one of us has a role to play," he said.

"We can all make a difference by changing the way we do things, so that we reduce, reuse and recycle rather than just throwing away. Making small changes to our behaviour will help us rise to the challenge of improving our recycling performance, ultimately helping Wales work towards hitting our national recycling and composting target of 40% by 2009/10."

To help you reduce the amount of rubbish you throw away, and reuse and recycle even more in 2007, Waste Awareness Wales says there are simple steps everyone can take from 1^st January:

• Make a greener lifestyle one of your New Year resolutions
  Log onto www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk to find your nearest recycling facility;
  
• Take a fresh look…
  at those ‘boring’ Christmas gifts from Grandma: re-usable, cotton hankies are a greener option than disposable tissues;
  
• Create a ‘green room’
  To accommodate your new drawerful of Christmas jumpers or January sales bargains take old, unwanted clothes and shoes to your local charity shop, or a textile/shoe collection point at bring-sites or supermarket car parks;
  
• Be a savvy sales shopper
  Making the most of the January bargains? Think about reducing the total number of bags you use by reusing carrier bags or even using a cloth bag or ‘bag for life’;
  
• Drop before you shop
  Make recycling part of your weekly supermarket trip by making the most of any available recycling facilities nearby. Check out Waste Awareness Wales’s website (www.wasteawarenesswales.org.uk), which tells you where your nearest recycling facilities are;
  
• Go one better
  If you are already recycling, add an extra material to your list – choose from paper, glass, drinks and food cans. Contact your local council to find out which materials can be recycled from your kerbside - contact details for the council are on Waste Awareness Wales’s website;
  
• Keep your tree green
  Let’s face it, by Twelfth Night the appeal has long worn off and you need the space back: if you can’t replant your tree, contact your local authority to see if they run a Christmas tree recycling scheme;
  
• Recycle your Christmas wishes
  Between 2-31 January 2007 you can recycle your Christmas cards at branches of WH Smith, Tesco and TK Maxx as part of the Woodland Trust Christmas Card Recycling Scheme;
  
• A healthy diet can be green too
  If one of your new year resolutions is to drop a dress size plenty of fresh food will be on the menu – and fruit and vegetable peelings are great for making compost - which can also do wonders for your garden.